Appendix: Events and Research Subcommittee Report

Prepared By: Dr. Hoda Mahmoudi and Dr. Dawn M. Dow In July 2020, in response to the tragic killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many other African Americans, often at the hands of law enforcement, the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS) at the University of Maryland announced The Anti-Black Racism Initiative (ABRI) led by Dr. Rashawn Ray to coordinate, publicize and enhance its efforts to identify, disrupt and prevent anti-Black racism. The initiative aims to work with existing campus entities that share its mission to raise awareness and address structural racism directed at the Black community. Some of these entities include The Baha'i Chair for World Peace, The Critical Race Initiative (Sociology); the Department of African American Studies; The Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. Center for Education, Justice, and Ethics, among other entities.

OUR MANDATE

The research and events (R&E) committee co-chaired by Dr. Hoda Mahmoudi and Dr. Dawn M. Dow was among several committees created by Dr. Ray to investigate current resources related to the aims of ABRI, identify needs, and make suggestions for how to move forward. The research and events committee's initial mandate was to identify campus events and research produced by faculty and graduate students aligned with the aims of ABRI. The committee aimed to understand how information about events and research is currently disseminated in BSOS and how such dissemination could be improved to better facilitate engagement by campus stakeholders (students, faculty, staff, administrators) and collaboration with faculty, departments, and programs. In addition to collecting information about these issues, we also benefited from the insight of our committee members who represent various constituencies on campus (faculty, staff, administrators, students)

INITIAL FINDINGS

During the first semester of ABRI, the R&E committee identified a consistent set of departments, programs, and centers that either independently or by co-sponsorship organize events focused on raising greater awareness of racial injustice. These entities include: The Critical Race Initiative (Sociology). The Baha'i Chair for World Peace. Department of African American Studies. The Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. Center for Education, Justice, and Ethics.

See Appendix: Events Report for a selection of events from the 2020-2021 academic year.

In addition, we noted that some departments who have not traditionally hosted events on these topics have begun to do so, seemingly in response to the increased awareness and attention to

racial injustice- what has been referred to as our country's "racial reckoning". To our knowledge, these departments have not regularly hosted events focused on addressing Anti-Black Racism in the past.

This increase in the recently organized ABRI-related events by various departments and programs is an important finding by our committee. This finding speaks to the current moment of "racial reckoning." Our committee feels that it is important for us to determine whether the recent increase in ABRI-related events and research initiatives within BSOS are temporary measures that may fade away over time. We believe that for BSOS to adequately address AntiBlack racism, we need a long-lasting systematic process of ongoing and sustained commitment to both events and research supporting ABRI's objectives.

In addition to collecting data on current events related to ABRI's mission, we have also started to think about how we might best capture ongoing Anti-Black racism research by faculty, postdocs, and graduate students. Although BSOS has faculty engaged in a range of substantive areas that focus on addressing Ant-Black racism, faculty in different departments are often unaware of overlapping research agendas that might foster fruitful collaborations. There is a need to establish a structural process whereby information about faculty research interests and projects are communicated college-wide.

Supporting Anti-Black racism is a stated priority of BSOS. As such, events and research initiatives related to that aim do not exclusively benefit Black faculty or students and should involve all BSOS students and faculty. Our review of events and research in the College found that these efforts are often subsidized and underwritten by faculty of color. These faculty often use their research funds and time to promote ABRI-related initiatives out of a commitment to these issues and/or synergies with their research. While this use of funds is commendable, faculty members should use their funds to advance their research efforts. As committee chairs, we strongly recommend that BSOS address this form of racial inequity among its faculty and create a climate that supports faculty research focused on Anti-Black racism. While there are, at times, important synergies between faculty research and ABRI events, it is crucial to recognize that this work is often not valued and recognized by University administration. This work has a significant positive impact on all students and directly benefits their solid academic experience and learning. Also, the College does not compensate faculty of color the disproportionate amount of time they spend organizing events and conducting research. Indeed, among those on our committee, members of color have recounted a range of service activities for which they are not currently compensated that benefit the college and university as a whole. Currently, diversity work carried out by individual faculty members in BSOS is not prioritized by administrators, chairs, committee chairs, and non-Black staff and faculty. Recent events have shown us that this work cannot be isolated to one group of people or one discipline but needs to be integrated throughout the college.

RECOMMENDATIONS

From our review of the ongoing efforts on campus, and in consultation with the R&E committee members, we recommend that BSOS devote resources to hiring one full-time permanent staff member to coordinate all of the different tasks that fall under the categories of ABRI Research

and Events. We also recommend that the staff person be provided with the resources to hire one or two Graduate Assistants, as needed, to assist with the work assigned to this full-time position. One of the tasks of the new staff members is to identify faculty members who are engaged in ABRI-related work. The information collected by the staff should also be included on an ABRI website regularly. The committee also suggests having a regular multi-day conference where faculty research on anti-Black racism is featured to raise awareness in the College and create a space where scholars can meet and discuss similar research interests.

Also, the staff person should be responsible for raising awareness about and promoting ABRIrelated events and research efforts on campus and more broadly. Finally, the staff should be well informed about grants, fellowships, scholarships, and the like and assist faculty and graduate students in acquiring the resources to pursue their research interests and projects.