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A Message from the Directors
June 2025
Dear CRRES Friends and Colleagues,
We write to you after the end of a rather tumultuous academic year. We started the year with much uncertainty about the Center’s future funding. We learned that IU Research pulled its funding, and the Office of the Provost would not fund CRRES after the 24-25 academic year. As a result of this news, CRRES moved back to the College of Arts and Sciences, and we began thinking about the ways we could continue our work on a limited budget.
Personally, I (Sylvia) found it to be an especially emotionally taxing time. As a member of the working group who envisioned the mission of the center back in 2008 or so, the budget cuts felt particularly devastating. Psychologically drained, I found it difficult to imagine advocating for CRRES in the ways it needed and deserved at the time and in the future. Consequently, I decided I would not seek reappointment as director of CRRES after this academic year. I am honored to have served in this role for the past three years and thankful that Sonia Lee, has agreed to serve as the next director of CRRES. And Koji Chavez, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology will serve as Associate Director. I am more than confident that CRRES is in excellent hands with Sonia and Koji in these leadership roles.
Despite these early challenges, CRRES moved forward with the programming for which it is known. Our Speaker Series featured the work of IU faculty and postdoctoral fellows such as Dr. Oscar Patrón (Education), Dr. Lucía Stavig (Anthropology), and Dr. Ramón Resendiz (Media School). We were also able to host two external speakers this academic year. In October, we hosted Dr. Amahl Bishara (Tufts University) who talked about “nakba,” literally catastrophe, a Palestinian concept for thinking about ongoing settler colonial dispossession and how it can be used to think about Palestinian collectivity across generations and geographies.
Our annual Research Symposium featured Dr. Mimi Khúc, author of dear elia: Letters from the Asian American Abyss (Duke University Press) who shared her work on unwellness and care in the academy. And as always, the symposium showcased the incredible research done by student researchers and faculty participating in the CRRES Undergraduate Research Program. In fact, we supported the largest cohort ever with 11 student-faculty pairs participating in the program this year! Many thanks to Cintia Alaniz for leading this cohort of outstanding researchers.
The year did end on a high note after learning that CRRES was awarded a $500,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation! We hope to support faculty and student research aimed at community engaged health research. Stay tuned for more details.
As always, we invite you to read this newsletter for a snapshot of what the Center and our affiliates have accomplished this year.
Sylvia Martinez, CRRES Director
Sonia Lee, CRRES Associate Director
SPEAKER SERIES
Our Speaker Series, in collaboration with other university departments and centers, invites scholars and artists to present their work in a lively public forum. These events contribute to IUB's intellectual climate and relevant campus conversations on race and ethnicity.
Fall Speakers
Dr. Oscar Patrón
Assistant Professor, Higher Education and Student Affairs, School of Education, Indiana University
"Even in safe spaces... it still happens": Exploring Femmephobia within Queer Communities through the Perspective of Gay Latino Collegians
Our first Speaker Series talk of the year featured Dr. Oscar Patrón, who shared his research on gay Latino men's experiences in college.
His narrative, qualitative study examined the manifestations and effects of femmephobia within queer communities and its impact on gay Latinos. Patrón analyzes multiple systems of oppression, as forces that guide attitudes and behaviors held in society about different groups of people. Based on interviews and participation in a private social media page with 50 gay Latino men, students’ stories revealed notable femmephobia at varying levels.
Dr. Amahl Bishara
Professor; Departments of Anthropology and Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora; Tufts University
"Speaking Across Generations and Geographies of the Ongoing Nakba"
Next, we heard from Dr. Amahl Bishara, who gave an especially timely talk on the Nakba, or catastrophe, a Palestinian concept for thinking about ongoing settler colonial dispossession since at least 1948.
Her talk applied the concept of the Nakba from 1948 and 2024 to examine how past forms of violence are used by Israel to attempt to legitimize or set in motion current violence. She asked, how do Palestinians conceive of moving forward today, a time of ongoing dispossession, repression of dissent, and death? Bishara proposes that conversations spanning geographic and generational difference are integral to maintaining Palestinian collectivity and to charting a path forward. Indigenous histories of struggle and storytelling exemplify how Palestinians can continue this work today.
Spring Speakers
Dr. Lucía Stavig
CRRES Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University
"Quechua Women Healing from Forced Sterilization: From Soul Loss to Communal Futures"
We kicked off our spring Speaker Series with a talk from CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar Lucía Stavig.
Dr. Stavig's work examines the impact of Perú's National Program of Reproductive Health and Family Planning, which sterilized 314,000 people from 1996 to 2000, the vast majority of whom were Indigenous women.
Affected Runa (Quechua) women continue to be beset by illnesses that keep them from being able to regenerate their biological, social, and spiritual worlds, with one illness identified being mancharisqa, susto, or soul loss. The symptoms of mancharisqa overlap with PTSD. However, the translation of mancharisqa in the clinical and legal definitions of trauma preclude a deeper Runa-centered understanding of this malady as an “illness of the land.”
Stavig's talk included a short documentary that chronicled a healing workshop at the Mosoq Pakari Sumaq Kawsay healing center in 2023. The workshop addressed women’s illness as mancharisqa and took place almost entirely in Runasimi (Quechua), highlighting the importance of language in community healing and well-being in the colonial present.
Dr. Ramón Resendiz
CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar, The Media School, Indiana University
"Between Memory and Resistance: Archives, Documentary Media, and Archival Resistance on the Mexico-US Borderlands"
Our next talk featured CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar Ramón Resendiz. Using a photographic methodology, Dr. Resendiz exposes how public monuments, architecture, and archival preservation produce settler colonial visualities.
His talk unpacked these issues by examining the visual culture of settler colonial archival institutions in the Texas borderlands. Drawing on over a decade of visual documentary fieldwork, Dr. Resendiz presented a multimodal media ethnography of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, from central Texas to the Rio Grande.
Resendiz finds that these institutions normalize white possessive historical imaginaries, structuring everyday visual experiences. His analysis focused on how historic discourses of colonial conquest and violence are remembered and made visible by museums, local communities, governments, and non-governmental organizations. These institutions operate on the unceded lands of the Lipan Apache, Coahuiltecans, Kickapoo, Tigua Ysleta del Sur, Karankawa, and other Indigenous peoples whose histories have been systematically erased from the historical record of what is now called Texas.
Dr. Mimi Khúc
Asian American Studies & Disability Studies Scholar; Co-Editor of The Asian American Literary Review
"Touring the Abyss with dear elia: Unwellness and Care in the University"
Our final speaker and symposium keynote speaker was Dr. Mimi Khúc, acclaimed Asian American Studies and Disabilities Studies scholar.
Khúc's visit included a community event at Morgenstern's, a student-focused event at the Asian Culture Center, and a keynote talk at the CRRES Research Symposium.
Mimi Khúc's talk focused on her new book, dear elia: Letters from the Asian American Abyss, a hybrid scholarly-arts project that traces the contemporary Asian American mental health crisis at its many intersections with the university. Through an analysis of the university as a space that makes us unwell, Khúc's book asks readers to engage their own unwellness. She introduces a pedagogy of unwellness—the recognition that we are all differentially unwell—and invites audience members to consider how this recognition might change how we approach how we teach and work in universities.
CO-SPONSORED EVENTS & WORKSHOPS
Throughout the year, CRRES collaborates with several units across campus, facilitating interdisciplinary spaces and intellectual exchange with nationally acclaimed scholars.
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROGRAM (URP)
The CRRES Undergraduate Research Program (URP) provides undergraduates with the opportunity to conduct research related to race and ethnicity under the mentorship of a faculty member. Research experiences include coding texts and visual media, examining archival documents, analyzing datasets, and preparing experimental and audit studies. Throughout the semester, students attend professional development workshops and their work culminates in a poster presentation at the CRRES Research Symposium.
CRRES RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM
This year, the CRRES Research Symposium featured keynote speaker Mimi Khúc, graduate student research panels, and Undergraduate Research Program poster presentations.
The symposium kicked off on Thursday, April 10th, with events featuring Dr. Mimi Khúc, who gave a symposium keynote titled "Touring the Abyss with dear elia: Unwellness and Care in the University."
On Friday, April 15th, we started the day with interdisciplinary graduate student research panels, moderated by CRRES friends and affiliates. Graduate student presenters represented a range of IU schools and departments, including African American & African Diaspora Studies, American Studies, Anthropology, History, Jacobs School of Music, The Media School, School of Education, School of Public Health, and Sociology. Presenters covered topics such as the racialized histories of public spaces in the UK, Indigenous futurisms and anti-colonial AI, and the use of musical performance for Asian American resilience.
At an afternoon poster session, participants in the Undergraduate Research Program shared findings from the research they conducted throughout the year. Their projects covered a diverse array of topics, from inequalities among Medicaid beneficiaries to barriers to filing workplace discrimination claims.
Undergraduate Student Poster Presentations
Camila Cantu (mentored by Dr. Lucia Guerra-Reyes), “Exploring Contraceptive Use and Decision-Making in Peruvian Women”
Aria Desai (mentored by Dr. Ellen Vaughan), “The Effects of Academic Pressure on South Asian Undergraduate Students: Tobacco and Cannabis Use as a Coping Mechanism”
Jonathan Ding (mentored by Dr. Clark Barwick), “Buried Justice: Unearthing the Human Rights Abuses that Power Our Future”
Brookelyn Lambright (mentored by Dr. Sonia Lee), “Resisting the Carceral State: The Power of Personal Narratives by Incarcerated Black Women"
Janelle Limo (mentored by Dr. Elaine Hernandez), “Jumping Through Hoops: How Low Reimbursement Rates and Administrative Burdens Undermine Medicaid Beneficiaries’ Health Agency”
Adeseeke Olofintuyi (mentored by Dr. Solimar Otero), “The 1918 Influenza Pandemic and the Transformation of Yoruba Religious Landscape”
Cara Roberge (mentored by Dr. Kody Steffy)
Anna Sarpong (mentored by Dr. Dorainne Green), “Workplace Discrimination Claims: Barriers, Perceptions, and Psychological Consequences”
Joshua Sinnett (mentored by Dr. Alex Lichtenstein), “The Ethnographic Gaze: A Decolonial Examination of U.S. and South Africa”
Katelyn Wo (mentored by Dr. Dorainne Green), “Bias Reporting and Belonging”
GRANT AWARDEES
Each year, CRRES provides funding to support faculty and graduate student research. This funding helps scholars across campus develop their research agendas and progress in their theses and dissertations.
Congratulations to all recipients!
Graduate Student Research Grants
Fall 2024
- Cintia Alaniz (Applied Psychology in Education and Research Methodology), "¡La Familia es lo Primero!: The Role of Familismo and Traditional Gender Roles in Predicting Psychological Well-being and Sense of Belonging among First-Generation Mexican College Student"
- Jeffery Giddings (African American and African Diaspora Studies), "The Wake of Blackness: Public Spaces in the UK and Reckonings with it's Racialized Histories"
- Joseph Johnson (Folklore and Ethnomusicology), "Black Banjo Recovery: (Un)disciplining the Black Body of the Banjo"
- Siya Kulkarni-Schaefer (Applied Psychology in Education and Research Methodology), "Wearing Our (Whole) Hearts on Our Sleeves: Psychotherapists Dress for Work"
- Jesus Navarro (Applied Psychology in Education and Research Methodology), "Los Hombres no Lloran: The Role of Emotional Suppression in Machismo, Substance Use, and Treatment-Seeking among Mexican Men"
- Jacqueline Paiz (Applied Psychology in Education and Research Methodology), "Shaping the Narrative: Latine Graduate Students' Perspectives on Mental Health Treatment and Therapy"
- Alethia Russell (Education Leadership & Policy Studies), "Twice as Hard to Get Half: Examining High Achieving Black Undergraduate Women’s Perceptions of Achievement and Its Influence on Their Wellness Practices"
Spring 2025
- Michael Bienz (Education), "Educational Experiences of Refugee Youth from Myanmar (Burma) Living in Indiana"
- Anna Biesecker-Mast (History), "Care and Fugitivity: Dispossessed Women in Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary Philadelphia"
- Alexis Briggins (Education), "How Racial Socialization Shapes Dating Experiences for Black/White Biracial Women"
- Soocheol Cho (Sociology), "Racialized and Gendered Flexibility Stigma in Remote Work"
- MarChe Daughtry (Gender Studies), "Untold Stories: Narratives of Sexual Pleasure by Black Disabled and Chronically Ill Women and Femmes"
- Kennedy Fue (Anthropology), "Exploring Black Identity within Indigenous and Melanesian Cultural Expression and Resistance in Australia: A Preliminary Study"
- Paul Garza (American Studies), "U.S. Border Patrol Officers: Negotiations between the State and the Personal"
- Deziree Jackson (Sociology), "Inequitable Environments: Exploring the Relationship between Racism, Stress, and (Un)Healthy Aging"
- Liliana Leon (Anthropology), "Food justice strategies of Latino migrants in Bloomington, Indiana"
- Gaya Morris (Anthropology), "The Ideological and Affective Dimensions of Informal Wolof-French Bilingualism in Senegal"
- Roberto Ortiz (Sociology), "The Journey to Perfection: The Professionalization of Student Musicians in Music School"
- Ozgun Ozata (Folklore and Ethnomusicology), "From Recipes to Belonging: The Role of Foodways in Place-Making and Identity for Syrian Refugee Women in Istanbul"
Graduate Student Travel Grants
Fall 2024
- Mallika Khanna (Media Studies), "Where Does Healing Lie? Interrogating the Racialized Body as Site of Trauma and Healing"
- Garima Plawat (Folklore and Ethnomusicology), "Through the Looking Glass: Being or Becoming Asian in Academia"
Spring 2025
- Kasha Appleton (History), "'Deserving of Having the Charge Care and Custody of Her Said Child': Habeas Corpus, Child Custody, and Motherhood in 19th- Century America"
- Yanming Kuang (Sociology), "The Impacts of Immigration Policy on Anti-Immigrant Activity"
Faculty Research Grants
- Cara Caddoo (The Media School), "Native American Moviegoing and Exhibition, 1903-1929"
- Juan Mora (History), "The Farm Labor Organizing Committee: A History of the Modern Farmworker Justice Movement"
- Alberto Ortega (School of Public and Environmental Affairs), "The Impact of Social Justice Movements on Access to Credit"
AFFILIATE NEWS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Our CRRES Affiliates are highly accomplished scholars in their fields. Below we provide a brief snapshot of their publications, awards, and achievements.
Selected Publications
- Stephanie Andrea Allen (Gender Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “The Unbearable Whiteness of Lesbian Studies” in Feminists Talk Whiteness (edited by Leigh-Anne Francis and Janet Gray), and “I Am a Lesbian: Black Queer Subjectivities in The Watermelon Woman and Pariah” in Women, Gender, and Families of Color.
- Maria Hamilton Abegunde (African American and African Diaspora Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “Conjuring Transformation: The Magic is in the Process,” an invited chapter in Contemplative Practices and Acts of Resistance in Higher Education: Narratives Toward Wholeness (edited by Michelle C. Chatman, Leeray Costa, and David W. Robinson-Morris), and “Open Pedagogy as the Intersection of Digital Skills and Community” (with Willa Tavernier) in the Handbook of Black Librarianship, Third Edition (edited by Andrew P. Jackson, Marva L. Deloach, and Michele Fenton).
- Aleshia Barajas (American Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) has a forthcoming publication titled “An Extraordinary Ride to the Other Side: Border Fantasies and Fuckeries in the Context of Sanctioned Crossings” in the Journal of Latin American Studies.
- Cara Caddoo (History, The Media School, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “Captive and Captivated Audiences: Native American Film Exhibition, 1903–1929” in the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies.
- Dasha N. Carver (Applied Psychology in Education and Research Methodology, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) published “Prevalence and Correlates of Sexual Choking and Consensual Non-Consent (CNC) Among College Students: Findings from a Campus-Representative Survey” (with Debby Herbenick, Tsung-chieh Fu, Dakota Brandenburg, Mary Balle, Heather Eastman-Mueller) in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy.
- Vanessa Cruz Nichols (Political Science, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) had a solo publication accepted in the American Journal of Political Science.
- Brad Fulton (O'Neill School, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) has a forthcoming co-authored book titled Bridging Social Divides that will be published by Oxford University Press.
- Faye Gleisser (Art History, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “On Indiana: A Disorientation Guide” in the Artist Communities at Risk series in the journal October and “Sitting Beside the Sit-In: Art Museum Dining and Gastrocuratorial Politics in the Age of DEI” in the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present (ASAP) Journal.
- Clovia Hamilton (Business Law and Ethics, Kelley School of Business, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) has five law papers accepted for publication in 2025.
- David Konisky (O'Neill School, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “It is Time to Modernize Energy Insecurity Policies to Account for Extreme Heat” (with Sanya Carley) in Joule and “Assessing Demographic Vulnerability and Weather Impacts on Utility Disconnections in California” (with Trevor Memmott and Sanya Carley) in Nature Communications.
- Sonia Lee (American Studies, Latino Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “‘To Be Available to the Universe’: Trauma and Healing within Black and Brown Freedom Movements” in Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society.
- Noriko Manabe (Music Theory, Jacobs School of Music, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published the Oxford Handbook of Protest Music (co-edited with Eric Drott), “Protest Chants as Public Music Theory” in Music Theory Spectrum, and “Awich: A New Era for Japanese Women Rappers” in American Music Review, and edited two books in the 33-1/3 Japan series at Bloomsbury: Toshiko Akiyoshi’s Kogun by E. Taylor Atkins and SOB’s Don’t Be Swindle by Mahon Murphy and Ran Zwigenberg.
- Vanessa Miller (School of Education, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “Students Under Surveillance: Big Data Policing and Privacy Rights” in Educational Researcher, “A National Survey and Critical Analysis of University Police Statutes” in the Buffalo Law Review, and “Race Centers as Critical Curriculum Spaces in U.S. Law Schools” in Mercer Law Review.
- Solimar Otero (Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Gender Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published Emerging Perspectives in the Study of Folklore and Performance (co-edited with Anthony Bak Buccitelli) with Indiana University Press and Esu-Elegba’s Crossroads: Transcultural Creativity in the Works of Femi Euba (co-edited with Eric Mayer-García) with Routledge.
- Oscar Patrón (Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “Understanding femmephobia within queer communities: Insights from gay Latino college men” (with S. R. Harper) in The Journal of Higher Education.
- Gabriel Peoples (Gender Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) has a forthcoming book titled Goin’ Viral: Uncontrollable Black Performance that will be available on July 22, 2025 through the University of Illinois Press, The New Black Studies Series.
- Paulo Ramos (CRRES Visiting Scholar) published the bilingual English-Portuguese edition of his acclaimed poetry book Corpos D’Água/Bodies of Water.
- Yael Rosenstock Gonzalez (School of Public Health, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) published “At the crossroads of critical consciousness and sex positivity: Reactions to race play” (with J. Brooks and M. Sims) in the Journal of Sex Research and has a forthcoming chapter titled “Liberation-Centered Learning Spaces: Implementing Joy, Relationships, and Power-Shifting” in Fundamental Concepts and Critical Developments in Sex Education: Intersectional and Trauma Informed Approaches.
- sasha weiss (American Studies, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) published “Liberation After/life: Narrative Connectivity and Black Women’s Cancer Mortality” in Catalyst.
- Phoebe Wolfskill (African American and African Diaspora Studies, American Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “‘Comedy, Pathos, Delight, and Horror:’ Satire in the Work of Joyce J. Scott” in Woman’s Art Journal.
- Y. Joel Wong (Counseling and Educational Psychology, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) published “Gratitude in a culturally adapted psychotherapy group and in Chinese culture: Interpretative phenomenological analysis” (with P. F. J. Li, K. Deng, & Y. Li) in the Asian American Journal of Psychology and “Clients’ race/ethnicity as a moderator of the relationship between the therapeutic alliance and treatment outcome” (with Y. Li, S. Whiston, and L. Gilman) in the International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling.
Selected Awards and Honors
- Maria Hamilton Abegunde (African American and African Diaspora Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) was the commissioned poet for Womb Songs, which was funded by a $10,000 Institute for Advanced Study Collaborative Research Grant (2022-2024).
- Stephanie Andrea Allen (Gender Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) was elected to the Governing Council of the National Women's Studies Association, where she serves as one of the Women of Color Caucus Co-Chairs.
- Clark Barwick (Kelley School of Business, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) will be awarded the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, which recognizes faculty who represent excellence in teaching across the university’s campuses, schools and departments.
- Alexis M. Briggins (Applied Psychology in Education and Research Methodology, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) presented at the CRRES Research Symposium and Great Lakes Counseling Psychology Conference. She also successfully advanced to doctoral candidacy in the Counseling Psychology program!
- Cara Caddoo (History, The Media School, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received fellowships from the National Humanities Center and Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
- Dasha N. Carver (Applied Psychology in Education and Research Methodology, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) graduated with her doctorate in Counseling Psychology!
- Vanessa Cruz Nichols (Political Science, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) was nominated for the IU Andrew Carnegie Junior Fellowship, IU Morley Early Career Award, and TRiO Award through DePaul University.
- Lisa Doi (American Studies, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) is graduating with a PhD in American Studies this summer!
- Brad Fulton (O'Neill School, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) was awarded a Stage 1 NSF grant to identify and address philanthropy deserts, communities with the greatest needs that receive the least amount of philanthropic funding.
- Faye Gleisser (Art History, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) won the 2024 ASAP Book Prize for her book, Risk Work: Making Art and Guerrilla Tactics in Punitive America, 1967-1987 (University of Chicago Press, 2023).
- Dorainne Green (Psychological and Brain Sciences, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received the 2024 Outstanding Junior Faculty Award and was honored at an awards reception in November.
- Clovia Hamilton (Kelley School of Business, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) won a $3000 leadership in research award in the Department of Business Law and Ethics and is a FACET Innovate Award finalist.
- Mihee Kim-Kort (Religious Studies, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) graduated with her Ph.D. in Religious Studies!
- Jason Baird Jackson (Folklore, Anthropology, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) was elected to the role of President-Elect of the American Folklore Society.
- Andrea Marañón Laguna (Anthropology, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) won multiple awards, including the American Folklore Society’s Gerald D. Davis Presence Pathway Award, IU Anthropology Travel Award, IU Global Summer Pre-Dissertation Travel Grant, and IU Anthropology David C. Skomp Feasibility Fellowship.
- Noriko Manabe (Music Theory, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) presented at the Association for Asian Studies, American Musicological Society, and Society for Music Theory, and gave invited talks at the Eastman Conservatory of Music and University of Colorado-Boulder.
- Sylvia Martinez (Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) won the School of Education’s Martha Dawson Award for Outstanding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Achievement, was admitted to the Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching (FACET), and secured a book contract with Lived Places Publishing, Latinx Studies Series.
- Vanessa Miller (School of Education, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) was selected as an Early Career Fellow for the Education Law Association, and was selected to present scholarship at the University of Michigan Law School Junior Scholar's Conference.
- Jeff Moscaritolo (American Studies, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) presented at the IU Media School Common Ground conference, CRRES Research Symposium, completed IU's year-long Kovener Teaching Fellows Program, and completed a College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Research Fellowship.
- Korinthia Nicolai (Counseling and Educational Psychology, CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar) won the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division E Outstanding Dissertation Award for Human Development and the Division C Graduate Student Research Excellence Award.
- Solimar Otero (Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Gender Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) was invited as the 2024-2025 Vincent G. Harding Scholar Lecturer at the Iliff School of Theology, University of Denver.
- Jacqueline Paiz (Applied Psychology in Education and Research Methodology, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) presented at The Visiting Future Faculty Program (VITAL) at the University at Buffalo, will present at the 2025 American Psychological Association (APA) Convention, and matched to her top Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) internship site at American University in Washington, D.C.
- Oscar Patrón (Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) received a Spencer Foundation grant for his project “Exploring institutional agents’ leadership approaches and racial equity orientations: Supporting Black and Latinx students in higher education.”
- Garima Plawat (Folklore and Ethnomusicology, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) won two awards from the IU Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology: the Chair's Recognition Award for outstanding contributions to graduate student life, and the Student Service Award in honor of extraordinary dedication in the classroom, on campus, and in the greater community.
- Peper Rivers (American Studies, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) presented at the CRRES Research Symposium, the Paul Lucas Graduate Conference, the annual meeting of the American Association for the History of Medicine, and will also present at the annual conference of the Society for the Study of Social Problems in August.
- Olga Rodríguez-Ulloa (American Studies and Latino Studies Program, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) won a Grant in Support of Research and Creative Activity for her project, “Sadistic Cholas: Sex and Violence in Contemporary Peru and its Diaspora.”
- Yael R. Rosenstock Gonzalez (School of Public Health, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) received the IU Bloomington 2025 Latine Faculty and Staff Council Graduate Student Award, and graduated with a Ph.D. in Applied Health Sciences!
- Eric Allen Sader (Business Law and Ethics, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) won the 2024 John Bonsignore Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Legal Studies Education, bestowed by the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, for teaching or research that is interdisciplinary, demonstrates critical thinking skills, and reflects humanitarian concerns.
- Anna Sarpong (CRRES Undergraduate Research Program Student, 2022-2025 CRRES Undergraduate Intern) won first place at the Center of Excellence for Women & Technology (CEWIT) 2025 Research Poster Competition in the Social Sciences category for her project titled “Workplace Discrimination Claims: Barriers, Perceptions, and Psychological Consequences.”
- sasha weiss (American Studies, CRRES Graduate Affiliate) presented at the 2024 American Studies Association's Environmental Justice Caucus Panel. They also passed their qualifying exams!
- Joel Wong (Counseling and Educational Psychology, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) was recognized as Provost Professor, a professorship honoring those who have achieved local, national and international distinction in both teaching and research/creative activity.
- Ellen Wu (History, CRRES Faculty Affiliate) was elected to the board of the Society of Senior Ford Fellows. She also spoke on the panel “The Changing Face of America: The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965” at the Birch Bayh Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Indianapolis, hosted by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana and the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Indiana to celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Placements
Upcoming Postdoctoral Scholar Placements
- Ramón Resendiz, University of Oregon, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, 2025-26
- Lucía Stavig, Indiana University Bloomington, Assistant Professor, Hamilton Lugar School, 2025-26
Tenure & Promotion
Congratulations to the following CRRES Affiliates for their promotion to Associate Professor with tenure!
- Dr. Maria Hamilton Abegunde
- Dr. Hyeyoung Kwon
- Dr. Gabriel Peoples
Congratulations to the following CRRES Affiliate on her promotion to Full Professor!
- Dr. Karen M. Inouye
POSTDOCTORAL PROGRAM
The aim of the CRRES Postdoctoral Scholar Program is to nurture the careers of the next generation of scholars conducting research on race and ethnicity. Each year, CRRES conducts a nationwide search and selects postdoctoral scholars in the social sciences and humanities to be housed in departments and schools across campus.
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Incoming Postdoctoral Scholar
In Fall 2025, CRRES will welcome new postdoctoral fellow Angelica "Jelly" Loblack!
Angelica "Jelly" Loblack is a CRRES Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology at Indiana University. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Maryland in 2025. Her research examines how gendered racial socialization and anti-Black racialization shape identity, embodiment, and political engagement in Black multiracial, multiethnic, and immigrant communities. Using intersectional and critical feminist approaches, her work investigates these processes across familial, educational, and institutional contexts. At CRRES, Jelly will focus on a book manuscript that builds on her dissertation research, Tethered Tensions, Covert Bonds: Navigating Racial Socialization and Anti-Blackness in Multiracial Families. Through over 160 hours of ethnographic observation and 92 interviews with Black-white multiracial families, her project explores how racial socialization—centered on Black pride, mixedness, or both—differentially shapes children’s understandings of race, selfhood, and power. In this project, Jelly demonstrates how racial socialization in these families is marked by both resistance to and complicity in the reproduction of racial inequality, with whiteness operating as a pervasive force that structures whose labor counts, whose experiences are centered, and how racial meaning is constructed and internalized. Her work has been supported by the Ford Foundation and the Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship. Jelly was also awarded the American Sociological Association's Minority Fellowship Program for the 2025-2026 academic year, which she declined to begin her CRRES postdoctoral fellowship.
Welcome Jelly!
2024-25 CRRES STAFF
- Sylvia Martinez, CRRES Director
- Sonia Lee, CRRES Associate Director
- Jessica Smith, CRRES Administrative Assistant
- Monica Heilman, CRRES Graduate Assistant
- Cintia Alaniz, CRRES Graduate Assistant, Undergraduate Research Program Liaison
- Anna Sarpong, CRRES Social Media and Communications Intern
Staff Updates
Jessica Smith has taken a job in Central Eurasian Studies in the Hamilton Lugar School. Thank you for over 10 years of service, Jessica!
Monica Heilman graduated with her Ph.D. in Sociology and is starting a Visiting Assistant Professor position at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. Thank you for over 5 years of service, Monica!
Anna Sarpong graduated with her B.A. and is starting a job with the Visa Leadership Accelerator Rotational Program in Atlanta. Thank you for 3 years of service, Anna!
Incoming CRRES Staff
Dalton Kumar is joining the CRRES team as our new administrative assistant. Welcome, Dalton!
We could not do this work without the generous support of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Special thanks to our campus partners for 2024-25: Departments of African American and African Diaspora Studies, American Studies, Anthropology, English, Gender, Geography, History, Sociology, and Spanish and Portuguese; as well as the Arts and Humanities Council; the Asian Culture Center; Asian American Studies Program; College Arts and Humanities Institute; College Office of Diversity and Inclusion; First Thursdays; Gayle Karch Cook Center for Public Arts and Humanities; Institute for Advanced Study; IU Libraries; Latino Studies Program; Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; Native American and Indigenous Studies; and Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center.