CSER | Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race

Apply to the MA program in American Studies!

The M.A. program in American Studies at Columbia is the only graduate degree in American Studies housed in an Ethnic Studies center. This unique vantage affords a view of American life from outside, and recognizes the fundamental importance of race and ethnicity as organizing categories in American culture and society. The deadline for applications is February 6; see our website for more information about the program and admissions!

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CSER Spring 2025 Welcome Back Social

Join us for CSER’s Spring 2025 Welcome Back Social on Tuesday, January 28th from 6-8PM in CSER’s seminar room! All CSER students, faculty, affiliates, and community members are welcome to join. Dinner from Tropical Sensation will be provided.

Roots Spring 2025 BORDERLANDS Submissions

Submissions are now open for Roots’ 2nd issue, themed “Borderlands.” Our submission window is open from 20 November 2024 to 20 January 2025, 11:59 p.m. EST.

Established within the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race (CSER), this journal is a unique space for academic and creative work directly related to the intersection of several axes of identity—namely race, ethnicity, sex, class, and ability. Open to students both undergraduate and graduate, this journal rejects the rigid boundaries of traditional scholarship and welcomes the interdisciplinary creations of the larger Columbia/Barnard community. Our desire to anchor Ethnicity and Race scholarship—and the students who conduct it—as essential to the fabric of Columbia University.

Submit here!

In Color CSER Audio Programme Team Application

Interested in Ethnic & Race Studies and/or podcast production? We encourage you to apply to “In Color,” the newly minted in-house CSER Audio Programme. “In Color” is committed to providing a student-led space dedicated to amplifying discourse and concepts cultivated within the field of Race & Ethnic Studies. If you are interested in podcast production, building professional connections and marketing skills, or engaging in dialogue and research around critical and contemporary issues in the world of ethnicity and race, we warmly invite you to apply to join our team! Applications are due January 15th, and are open to all!

Apply here

Ethnic Studies and Pre-Law

Join the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race for a panel discussion featuring lawyers, legal scholars, and a law school student working toward social and racial justice. The conversation will be geared for students interested in law, and will address practical questions about funding law school as a low-income student as well as conceptual questions about the intersections between Ethnicity and Race Studies and the law.

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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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