CRE² in the News

Faculty affiliate James Gibson recently co-authored a piece reflecting on the life and legacy of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu titled “Desmond Tutu’s legacy and the TRC: Can truth reconcile a divided nation?”

Congrats to Faculty Affiliate Leopoldo Cabassa on his recent appointment to the Advisory Council of the National Center for Scientific Review (CSR)!

Faculty affiliate Zakiya Luna wrote the piece for Refinery29 for their “Roots series, their annual #BlackHistoryMonth series.

CRE2 Faculty Affiliate and Small Grant recipient Miguel Valerio recently published a co-edited volume titled Indigenous and Black Confraternities in Colonial Latin America Negotiating Status through Religious Practices in Amsterdam University Press.

Samuel Shearer, Assistant Professor in African and African-American Studies and CRE2 Faculty Affiliate, won the grant to support his project “The Kigali After: A New City for the End of the World.”

Tila Neguse, CRE2 Associate Director, was named a 2022 Langston Hughes Fellow by the Palm Beach Poetry Festival.

In a new book, Infrastructural Optimism, Faculty Affiliate ans urban design expert Linda C. Samuels argues that optimism is not simply a reflexive emotional state, but a critical driver of public investment, societal progress and maybe even democracy itself.

Faculty Affiliate Zakiya Luna write a piece for Ms. Magazine in which she discusses how bell hooks serves as an “other mother”–women who parent children who are not their own–for many Black women.

Faculty Affiliates Iver Bernstein and his students were featured in a St. Louis Public Radio article sharing how they recently uncovered that WashU’s co-found William Greenleaf Eliot was not an abolitionist as once believed.

Two research teams led by Faculty Affiliates, one led by Joyce Balls-Berry and another led jointly by Darrel Hudson and Ganesh Babulal, have received a combined $7 million in grants to support efforts to bring more Black Americans into Alzheimer’s research.

Faculty Affiliate Zakiya Luna shared her expertise in a recent article discussing the recent Supreme Court case, highlighting the particular importance of reproductive rights for women of color.

Faculty Affiliate and Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development Sean Joe lended his expertise in a recent USA Today article. He discussed the increase has been noticeable among preteen Black children, particularly in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Faculty Affiliate and Associate Professor of Law Travis Crum shared his expertise in a recent article discussing the consequences of Texas’s redistricting on Black and brown communities.

Faculty affiliate Dr. Sean Joe initiative “HomeGrown STL” has formed a Regional Steering Committee of 25 senior-level decision-makers from across the region to address the critical issues impacting Black boys & young men in the STL region.

Faculty affiliate Michael Esposito shared his recent research with My Modern Met . He discussed the connections between urban planning and cognitive health, and how those connections are shaped by race, gender and socioeconomic status. 

Faculty affiliate Bettina Drake and colleagues have received a $17 million National Cancer Institute grant that has a special focus on improving the diversity of research participants.

Faculty affiliate Helina Woldekiros and her collaborators recently launched a new open-access database collects and shares publications on African archaeology , broadly defined, by African and Afrodescendant scholars.

Congrats to faculty affiliate Calvin Lai ! Dr. Lai has received a grant from the Department of Justice that will support his evaluation of a diversity training program for thousands of law enforcement members.

Postdoctoral affiliate Savannah Larimore conducted a #COVID19 study that found that counties with more incarcerated people had higher infection rates.

Faculty affiliate Travis Crum shared his expertise with the MO House redistricting commission.