The Center for Critical Race Studies (CCRS) at the University of Houston-Downtown proudly affirms the diverse communities that comprise the Greater Houston metropolitan area and the Gulf Coast region. The Center passionately pursues its mission and rich tradition of hosting ground-breaking experts who foster innovative analysis and critical consideration of our nation's ongoing struggle to end racial disparities. Nationally renowned scholar and educator, Dr. Stacey Floyd-Thomas is the Associate Professor of Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. She is co-founder of the Society for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Religion (SRER) and serves as the Executive Director of both the Society of Christian Ethics (SCE) and the nationally-acclaimed Black Religious Scholars Group (BRSG).        

Dr. Floyd-Thomas’ research interests lie at the intersection of ethics, feminist/womanist studies, Black Church studies, critical pedagogy, critical race theory, and postcolonial studies.  Her overall approach to the study of Christian social ethics engages broad questions of moral agency, cultural memory, ethical responsibility, and social justice. Drawing upon socio-historical methods and liberation ethics, Dr. Floyd-Thomas’ work in Christian social ethics has a threefold focus—race, gender, and class. For her, religious discourse is inseparable from thinking about how to construct a justice-seeking community.

Jennifer Cobbina-Dungy is an Associate Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. She received her PhD in criminal justice at the University of Missouri – St. Louis in 2009.

Jennifer Cobbina-Dungy, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University and the author of Hands Up, Don't Shoot: Why the Protests in Ferguson and Baltimore Matter and How They Changed America. She received her PhD in criminal justice at the University of Missouri – St. Louis in 2009. Her areas of expertise center on police-community relations, youth violence, and concentrated neighborhood disadvantage, with a special focus on the experiences of minority youth and the impact of race, class, and gender on criminal justice practices. Her research also focuses on corrections, prisoner reentry and the understanding of recidivism and desistance from crime.

Dr. Cobbina-Dungy is the Associate editor for Crime & Delinquency and serves on the editorial board of the scholarly journals Justice Quarterly, Criminology & Public Policy, Journal of Crime & Justice, Feminist Criminology, and Sociology Compass.

Fireside Chat with Dr. Felicia Harris Video

Dr. Cobbina-Dungy's Research Presentation Video

Associate Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and African American Studies Washington University and Incoming Director, Frederick Douglass Institute University of Rochester.  Jeffrey Q. McCune Jr., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of African & African American Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, is the author of the award-winning book Sexual Discretion: Black Masculinity and the Politics of Passing. He is presently completing two book projects, Disobedient Reading: An Experiment in Seeing Black, and the other on the “wildness" of Kanye West titled, On Kanye. He has published in a variety of journals and also serves on the editorial board of numerous journals. He is the co-editor of the University of California Press’s New Sexual Worlds book series. For his work at the intersections, of race gender, and sexuality, McCune has been featured on Left of Black, Sirius XM's Joe Madison Show, HuffPost Live, NPR and as a guest expert on Bill Nye Saves The World. As of June 2021, he will assume the role as Director of the Frederick Douglass Institute of African & African American Studies at the University of Rochester.

Dr. Jeffery McCune's Presentation, Begin Again: A Manifesto for the Margins Video

Dr. Tina M. Harris is an internationally renowned interracial communication scholar with particular interests in race, media representations, and racial social justice. Her pedagogy, research, and service at LSU are driven by her desire to empower others with the communication and critical thinking skills necessary for becoming global citizens. The end goal of these efforts is to equip students to use an applied approach where theory leads to practice in a world where racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity are a welcome inevitably. 

Dr. Harris talked about "Getting into the Trenches: Navigating Race Talk During Hostile Times".  She addressed UHD students, faculty, staff and the local community during events in February of 2020.

The Center for Critical Race Studies (CCRS) at the University of Houston—Downtown proudly affirms the diverse identities that shape all Houstonians as individuals, communities and citizens. In an effort to educate and empower our beloved Houston, we would like to cordially encourage you to participate in our annual Scholar-in-Residence Week. This year, the Center continues the tradition by hosting noted sociologist and activist Dr. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva as the 2019 Scholar in Residence.

Dr. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva is a professor of sociology at Duke University and president of the American Sociological Association. He will visit UHD January 29–31, 2019 for a series of lectures and discussions with the campus community. His journey as a scholar began at the University of Puerto Rico. His initial academic activities were focused on political strife in his native Puerto Rico. However after arriving in the United States, he became further engaged in research centered on white supremacy, racial discourse and institutionalized racism. As an Afro-Latino, the intersections of his own identity served as a fertile space to explore the complexity, confluence and nuance of racism in the U.S.

Dr. Bonilla-Silva is author of the seminal text “Racism Without Racists: Colorblind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States. He also has written a number of journal articles including “What We Were, What We Are, and What We Should Be: The Racial Problem of American Sociology,” “The New Racism: The Racial Regime of Post-Civil Rights America,” and “The Invisible Weight of Whiteness: The Racial Grammar of Everyday Life in Contemporary America.” I encourage you to build these events into your Spring calendars, course schedules and provide extra credit opportunities to your students. Feel free to invite your colleagues, family, and friends to take part in the weeklong events. In preparation for his seminars, workshops and public lecture, read on Dr. Bonilla-Silva at Duke Today, The Hill and New Racism from Racism and Radical Justice with Dr. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva.

Dr. Love is one of the field's most esteemed educational researchers in the area of Hip Hop education for elementary aged students. She is the founder of Real Talk: Hip Hop Education for Social Justice, an after school initiative aimed at teaching elementary students the history and elements of Hip Hop for social justice through project-based learning. 

Dr. Love is a sought-after public speaker on a range of topics including: Hip Hop education, Black girlhood, queer youth, Hip Hop feminism, art-based education to foster youth civic engagement, and issues of diversity. In 2014, she was invited to the White House Research Conference on Girls to discuss her work focused on the lives of Black girls. In addition, she is the inaugural recipient of the Michael F. Adams award (2014) from the University of Georgia. She has also provided commentary for various news outlets including NPR, The Guardian, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Dr. Love is one of the founding board members of The Kindezi School, an innovative school focused on small classrooms and art-based education. Finally, she is the author of the book Hip Hop's Li'l Sistas Speak: Negotiating Hip Hop Identities and Politics in the New South. Her work has appeared in numerous books and journals, including the English Journal, Urban Education, The Urban Review, and Journal of LGBT Youth. In 2017, Dr. Love edited a special issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies focused on the identities, gender performances, and pedagogical practices of Black and Brown lesbian educators. She is currently working on her second book, We Want to Do More Than Survive: A Pedagogy of Mattering.  

 Dr. Love's Presentation and Interview