Emerging Projects
Put simply, IARA’s research focuses on one question: what is needed for long-term, antiracist institutional change? In order to understand institutional antiracism more broadly, IARA’s research explores specific sectors, as well as the threads that connect them.
Below is an overview of IARA’s emerging projects. These topics are in the early stages of development; they are researched before being launching as full-scale projects. Keep scrolling to explore what we’re working on.
Philanthropy
Focusing on the field of philanthropy, IARA’s primary goal is to understand how foundations confront and transform their relationship to the origins and preservation of their wealth, and as part of their racial justice strategy.
A historical recovery of philanthropy’s relationship to wealth creation and grant making is necessary to understand the sector’s unique role in achieving racial justice goals today. This learning will provide guidance for how foundations can undertake change efforts more effectively and equitably going forward.
Institutional backlash
IARA doesn’t only study what works for advancing racial equity, but also what doesn’t. In its qualitative research, IARA documents case studies of institutional pushout — of Black, Indigenous, and people of color staff and DEI directors — as well as these same actors pushing for organizations to change.
These case studies offer learning for the field to better understand where resources, energy, and strategy are best utilized. Additionally, testimonies and accounts of truth telling by both current and former employees of organizations offer critical data for analysis. IARA’s inter-sectoral approach translates these findings for successful change implementation across a variety of sectors.
Government
IARA recognizes the crucial and unique role that government plays locally and federally in advancing, and challenging, efforts for racial equity. Given the high tide of national and local efforts for truth telling, as well as policy-driven orders, IARA is keen to understand how these developments impact the living conditions of communities of color across indicators of health, education and life experience.
Like its Private Sector Project, IARA sees the relevance of standards for accountability for government-led efforts for racial justice, to ensure both quality as well as direct impact. Without quantitative data, and root cause analysis driving action, many policies labelled as racial justice-driven fall flat of their stated goals.
Meet the researchers
Anil Hurkadli
Research Fellow
Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project
Recent News
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A call for anti-bias education
In a new article for Learning for Justice, Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad and IARA Research Projects Director Erica Licht share a call for anti-bias education to develop the next generation […]
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5 ways that college campuses benefit from diversity, equity and inclusion programs
In a new article for The Conversation, Erica Licht shares five ways that DEI programs have made a difference at colleges and universities throughout the U.S.
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Five ways to use our antiracism resource database
Answer pressing questions, discover new methodologies, and more with our Race Research and Policy Portal — a free database featuring easy-to-read summaries of peer-reviewed research.