COLLEGE STATION, Nov. 4, 2022 – The Race and Ethnic Studies Institute is hosting their annual “RESI Week” this past week from Oct. 31, 2022 – Nov.3, 2022. It is an annual event that combines research and creative activity that centralizes around race and ethnicity. Students, faculty, and staff had the opportunity to learn about the various ways race can be a prominent factor in everyday experiences.
The Race and Ethnic Studies Institute (RESI) was established in 1991 as a working example of Texas A&M University’s strengths and academic leadership in research. They specifically focus their research on race and ethnicity which sometimes intersects with gender, social class, sexuality and historical context. They then connected the relevance to issues of culture, politics, education, immigration, and health.
This year’s theme for RESI week was “Disrupting Racism: Transformation, Transparency and Collaboration.” Each event that happened during the week aimed to show the variety of ways we can challenge persisting racial disparities within society.
This year’s two types of events were speaker events and the Race and Space Tour. The speakers were Dr. Pierette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Dr. France Winddance Twine. Dr. Hondagneu’s event was on November 1st and she talked about the research she gathered for her book “South Central Dreams” which focuses on Black-Brown relations and Latinidad. On November 2nd, Dr. Twine was a keynote speaker for “Technology’s Matchmakers: Recruiting and Selling Candidates during a Pandemic.” On October 31st and November 3rd, they hosted Race and Space tours. These were campus tours that went to some of the University’s more preferred spaces and they explored the complex history of the school.