Levin College of Law

Center for the Study of Race & Race Relations


The Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations (CSRRR) is an academic research and resource center. The Center’s mission is met through the work of various groups engaged in a wide range of activities.

M Smith
Interim Director

Click here to view a recording of the discussion: Corporate Justice, Reparations, and Economic Activism

About the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations

Dr. Katheryn Russell-Brown directed the CSRRR for eighteen years (2003-2021). She now runs UF Law’s Race and Crime Center for Justice.

In 1996, UF Law Professor Sharon Rush had a big idea. It was time, she thought, for UF’s law school to establish a center on race. She shared her ideas with her colleague, Professor Kenneth Nunn. He agreed. Together they began to envision and plan, drawing in colleagues who were also interested in the intersections of race and law. The idea for a Race Center was quickly supported and developed with the help of a small and dedicated group. In addition to Professors Nunn and Rush, the group included Professors Michelle Jacobs, Pedro Malavet, Juan Perea (now at Loyola‐Chicago), Charles Pouncey (FIU), Phyliss Craig‐Taylor (Dean, NCCU). Rahim Reed, Assistant Dean for Minority Affairs, was also a member of this group. His efforts were critical to the establishment of the UF Race Center. Their goal was to etch out a strategy for making race central to legal studies at UF. Energetic and dedicated, this working group lobbied the law school’s administration to create a race center. These efforts led to a formal proposal and a two-year long wait. In spring 1998, the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations (CSRRR) was officially established as a university-wide center.

Now, more than 20 years later, the UF Race Center continues to thrive. With its mission of fostering communities of dialogue through empirical and intellectual discourse, it engages in a wide array of activities. The CSRRR hosts symposia and workshops, engages in research, produces scholarship, offers course development grants, and administers fellowships. In keeping with its original vision, the UF Race Center works across the university community with students, faculty, and other campus centers to broaden interdisciplinary efforts and connections to race.

The UF Race Center’s efforts are buoyed by a solid foundation of affiliate professors. In fact, UF Law has one of the largest contingents of affiliate professors at any law school in the country. Of the approximately 200 law schools in the United States, less than 25 have centers that focus on race. The CSRRR was the first one established and is the only one with a focus on race and race relations and race-related curriculum development.

CSRRR work includes:

  • Producing, supporting, and highlighting race-related scholarship within and beyond the UFcommunity
  • Gathering, analyzing, and sharing historical and contemporary knowledge about race and race relations
  • Developing and supporting, through teaching, research, writing, and workshops, race-related curricula for collegiate and professional schools
  • Fostering non-stigmatizing ways of discussing issues of race and ethnicity

Please join us in our efforts to identify and address the many difficult but important race-related issues. We look forward to working with you. We welcome your questions and comments at csrrr@law.ufl.edu.

Students

CSRRR supports students through various initiatives and opportunities.

FLSCRJ Fellows (2023-2024)

UF Law joined the other 11 Florida law schools to form the Florida Law Schools Consortium for Racial Justice in 2020. The FLSCRJ focuses on legislative advocacy. Our FLSCRJ Fellows contribute to state-wide advocacy with fellows throughout the state. Our UF Law FLSCRJ Fellows partner with the Florida League of Women Voters, assisting local citizens, returning from periods of prison incarceration, restore their voting rights.


Photo of austin Baldwin

Austin Baldwin

UF Law Class of 2025


Photo of D'errica Jackson

D’errica Jackson

UF Law Class of 2025

 

Racial Justice Research Assistants (2023-2024)

RJRAs are research assistants assigned to faculty and staff engaged in scholarship and programming that specifically addresses race and race-related topics.

Presentations and Publications

Derek Chauvin Trial and Verdict

Children with Incarcerated Parents

Race and Race-Related Scholarship

Youth Development Research-Practice Partnership Research Statement

Books and Publications on Race, Law School, and Lawyering

CSRRR compiled this resource to assist with incorporating the topic of race in law school curricula. Please view the resource here.

CSRRR Digital Collections and Projects

Visit the UF Law African American Digital History project. Hear the voices of UF Law Black Alumni. Listen to their stories. Learn an essential part of UF history.

Want to participate in a CSRRR discussion virtually? Please see the CSRRR’s digital home. Here we archive our materials, discussions and activities.

Winner of the John Lewis Film Competition

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Qualified Immunity, a film by Nikole Miller (JD 21). Click the thumbnail above to watch the film.

Newsletter

Fall 2020 E-Newsletter

Winter 2019 E-Newsletter

2019-2020 E-Newsletter


CSRRR News and Events

CSRRR Virtual Conversation: Supreme Court Precedent and Police Violence

The Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations (CSRRR) at the University of Florida Levin College of Law hosted a discussion and conversation with Professor Michelle Jacobs on Saturday, October 10, 2020 via Zoom. You may watch the recorded conversation by clicking the image below.

Law Firms in a Post-George Floyd World: Same Challenge, Different Day

The Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations, at the University of Florida Levin College of Law hosted the webinar, Law Firms in a Post-George Floyd World: Same Challenge, Different Day on Tuesday, July 28, 2020 at 12:00pm. The panel discussion was moderated by UF Law Professor Elizabeth Rowe. She was joined by […]

Should Colleges Mandate a Course on Race / Anti-Racism?

The Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations (CSRRR) at the University of Florida Levin College of Law hosted a webinar with a panel of UF faculty where they discussed the benefit and costs of creating a university-wide required course on race, on Thursday, June 25, 2020 at 12:00pm, via Zoom. To learn […]

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Contact Us

Contact Information

Address

Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations
University of Florida, Levin College of Law
P.O. Box 117625
Gainesville, FL 32611-7625

Email

csrrr@law.ufl.edu

Phone

(352) 273-0614