CSER | Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race

CSER's Fall 2024 Open House

Join CSER for our Fall 2024 Open House! Come to meet CSER students and faculty, learn about CSER’s history and mission, and explore the Ethnicity and Race Studies major at Columbia. There will be two informational sessions, one from 12-1PM and another from 1-2PM. Lunch will be provided!

Corky Lee’s Asian America: Fifty Years of Photographic Justice

Join Columbia University Libraries and the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race for a conversation about Corky Lee’s Asian America, a stunning retrospective of the photographer’s work—a selection of the best photographs from his vast collection, from his start in New York’s Chinatown in the 1970s to his coverage of diverse Asian American communities across the country until his untimely passing in 2021. Author, historian, and winner of the 2022 Bancroft Prize, Mae Ngai, will join Joanne Kwong CC ’97, and Ava Chin for a conversation moderated by Marie Myung-Ok Lee about Corky Lee and Asian American community in New York.

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Roots Journal, CSER's Student Publication

Check out the latest edition of CSER’s student journal, Roots! Established within The Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race in 2023-2024, Roots is a unique space for academic and creative work directly related to the intersection of several axes of identity—namely race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, class, and ability.

Want to get involved? Email cserjournal@gmail.com to inquire about submission guidelines, timelines, and available staff positions.

View our latest issue

2025 International Program on Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Policy Now Open for Applications

The Institute for the Study of Human Rights and the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race are glad to inform you that we are now accepting applications for the 2025 International Program on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Policy. This program is presented in partnership with the University of Auckland (New Zealand) and the University of British Columbia (Canada). Download our flyer for more information.

Download our flyer

Statement from CSER's Faculty

April 25, 2024

The Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race (CSER) faculty fully supports Columbia and Barnard students’ rights to free speech and assembly. We unequivocally and unanimously condemn the decision to bring armed riot police onto campus and to impose mass suspensions in response to peaceful student protests.

We urgently advocate for the immediate reinstatement of the Columbia and Barnard students, including restoring their access to academic and extracurricular activities, dining halls, and residences. The university leadership must also swiftly revoke the suspensions and expunge disciplinary sanctions from student records. Additionally, for the safety of everyone on campus, the administration must cease its collaboration with the FBI and the NYPD, end its deployment of private security firms to surveil students and faculty, and begin a dialogue taking students’ demands seriously.

The Center is the only academic unit at Columbia formed in response to student inquiry and activism. The students currently calling for a ceasefire and university divestment carry on that legacy. We demand a university that can sustain real dialogue, without policing, on state violence towards Palestine. The University should be able to engage peacefully with peaceful student protest.

Follow CSER's Instagram Account!

Follow CSER’s new Instagram account (@columbiacser) to stay up to date on our latest events and opportunities.

The Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race (CSER) is Columbia’s main interdisciplinary space for the study of ethnicity, race and indigeneity and their implications for thinking about culture, power, hierarchy, social identities, and political communities, in the U.S. and around the world.

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