Critical Race and Ethnic Studies

A Message from the Director

Dear Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) interested students, faculty, staff, and alumni,

As CRES Director, I would like to briefly introduce myself, highlight the importance of CRES as a field of study, and share some of the exciting plans that are in the works as we enhance the CRES program. Before I do that, however, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to Dr. Elizabeth Escobedo, Dr. Lisa Martinez, and the countless DU students, alumni, university personnel, and faculty for the many hours of work that they put into initiating the CRES program. They were instrumental to getting us to where we are today with CRES and deserve a big THANK YOU!

I am Dr. Reggie Byron, and in addition to my role as CRES Director I am also a tenured professor in the Sociology and Criminology department here at DU. Trained as a sociologist, I have taught a wide variety of sociology, criminology, psychology, and methodology courses at a range of academic institutions. These include a thirteen year teaching career at Southwestern University, courses I taught during the six years it took to earn my Doctorate in Sociology from The Ohio State University, and others I taught during the two years required to attain my Master’s in Psychology from the University at Buffalo.

I have also led various programs and initiatives (e.g., chairing my department at my former institution, conducting waves of campus climate surveys, directing an inclusive pedagogies grant for faculty, and consulting non-profit and for-profit organizations on their efforts toward diversification and inclusion). Indeed, the ability to combine these experiences and work with others toward establishing a nationally recognized undergraduate CRES program that has racial justice at its forefront are what attracted me to the CRES Director’s position at DU.

As of Fall Quarter 2023, DU now offers a CRES major in addition to the existing minor. As I’m sure you can imagine, building a successful major takes time and will require the input and efforts of many (i.e., students, faculty, university administrators, staff, and alumni). But we are underway! And such an effort could not come at a more urgent time as organizations of all types grapple with their racially problematic histories, injustices against APIDA (Asian, Pacific Islander, Desi American), Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous people persist at both policy and individual levels, scholars denote a troubling rise of “new old fashioned racism” (especially around the election cycle and the COVID-19 pandemic), and yet a growing national movement attacks the very ideas (e.g., Critical Race Theory) that are designed to expose the systemic and structural durability of such racial inequality. Whether we want it admit it or not, race, racialization, and racial inequality have had and continue to have an enduring role in American life.

CRES can give us a lens to understand the above-mentioned phenomena while providing us with tools so that we can ultimately chip away at these inequalities. And if we want to truly embrace DU’s vision (i.e., being a “great private university dedicated to the public good”), we must do something about these inequalities. This should not merely be a symbolic or academic exercise, of course. CRES students, faculty, staff, and alumni will have to join forces and push with the same tenacity as those whose shoulders we stand on who came before us.

There will be a number of opportunities to join forces (e.g., please look out for notices on open forums, surveys, open office hours, and social justice socials) in the coming quarters. And through my guiding values of racial justice-oriented research, activism, and philanthropy (R.A.P.) which will be infused throughout the new major, I hope to help CRES students to become the agents of change that our world so critically needs.

I look forward to engaging with you all,

Dr. Reggie Byron