LOS ANGELES
Using local ethnic communities to conduct large-scale surveys exploring the racial attitudes of major groups and providing opportunities for faculty and students to do international fieldwork about the impact of race and ethnicity on global modern societies are among the aspirations of a new University of California, Los Angeles center.
The Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Politics has both graduate and undergraduate students in the field, working on such issues as Salvadoran migrants in the United States, African migrants in France and the interaction between African-Americans and the Chinese in the Mississippi Delta.
“Issues of race and ethnicity are some of the most complex modern societies have to face,” says Dr. Mark Q. Sawyer, director of the center. “Our idea of who is or who is not a member of a race, nation or neighborhood is understood through the lens of race.”
The center is housed in UCLA’s public policy building and enjoys the full support of Scott Waugh, dean of the social sciences division.
“Race and ethnicity have been critical issues at the center of American life from the inception of the Republic and have at times played a dramatic role in politics,” Waugh says. “It is only fitting that a major research university in one of the most socially and politically dynamic cities in the United States should focus on the interplay of race and ethnicity in politics. I expect the center to be a powerful magnet for scholarship and ideas on these issues.”
