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The Institute on Race and Social Division (IRSD) at Boston University has been established to advance scholarly investigation of, and innovative teaching about, the causes, consequences, and methods of resolution of divisive conflicts between social groups within the modern nation-state. The study of these issues within American society, particularly in regard to the matter of race, constitutes a major aspect of the Institute's work. Social division between groups defined in terms of race and ethnicity -- along economic, cultural, and political lines -- is a central feature of public life in many nations throughout the world. IRSD is founded on the premise that important features of this problem are universal, and that there is much to be learned from the comparative study of such tensions and conflicts across national boundaries.
IRSD is a multidisciplinary research center, encouraging conversation and collaboration among scholars and students in the social sciences, the humanities, and the professions.
The Institute's approach to the complex issue of social division combines the insights of several fields. IRSD is committed to using the methods of quantitative social science to study problems of social division, and to ensuring that the ethical and moral dimensions of these questions receive greater attention, in both teaching and research.
IRSD endeavors to provide a forum for public deliberations that reaches across racial and ethnic group lines, beyond the promotion of scholarship and teaching, and beyond the ivory tower.
Public discourses on the issue of race have too often been freighted with symbolic significance, laced with code words, or simply full of wishful thinking. IRSD seeks to promote a more objective and candid reflection on the subject of racial and ethnic division in this country, and throughout the world, through the programs, conferences, research projects, summer seminars, dissertations, fellowships, publications, and public forums organized by the Institute.
Institute on Race and Social Division
704 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts 02215
T - 617.353.5850
F - 617.353.5733
E - irsd@bu.edu
