Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity

Larry Hajime Shinagawa, Director

To ensure that our students are prepared to meet the increasingly complex demands of a multicultural, multiracial, and multiethnic society and global community, Ithaca College established the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity in 1999. Through courses and extracurricular activities, the center will enable students to engage their own identities as well as those of people different from themselves and to understand how we define ourselves in relationship to others. Courses offered by the center focus primarily on the experiences of groups traditionally marginalized, underrepresented, or misrepresented in our society as well as in the curriculum. At the same time, courses provide an opportunity to explore and analyze the nature of interconnections between the United States and the rest of the world. The center was established to function as an important resource for the community by supporting meaningful dialogue and learning; developing conversational, conflict-confronting, and conflict-resolution skills; and serving as a beacon for faculty, speakers, and events that support its objectives.

A steering committee, made up of faculty and administrators and reporting to the assistant provost, is mapping out future directions for the center.