Building on the historic hiring outcomes of Black faculty in 2019-20, this competitive program will allocate positions across the campus for proposals that advance the understanding of the Black experience and the drivers of well-being for the Black community. 

The Inclusive Excellence Term Chair (IE Term Chair) Program is envisioned to transform UCI through research, teaching, and service aligned to the priorities of its Black Thriving Initiative.  The IE Term Chair program leverages the research and capacities of the campus to broaden UCI’s response to designated national imperatives.

A maximum of one proposal package per each academic unit dean may be submitted no later than 5 p.m. PT on Thursday, April 15. Nominees must be active Academic Senate members.

The purpose of the Black Thriving Institute is to harness the research and creative capacity of the campus to advance transformational change. Organized around anti-Blackness, racial justice and slavery, the Institute will support interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary activity to both understand the Black experience and promote the drivers of well-being in Black communities.

• Acknowledge the existence of anti-Black racism
• Understand your relationship to anti-Black micro- and macro-aggressions
• Recognize uncredited labor that Black people expend to manage the effects of unconscious and conscious acts of bias, prejudice and bigotry
• Confront anti-Blackness to build a thriving culture for Black people

This voluntary pledge to confront-Anti-Blackness underscores the campus inclusive excellence principles: equity, diversity, inclusion and free speech. It is not enough to expect equity for yourself without advocating for others.  It is not enough to support diversity without learning about the communities that we serve.  It is not enough to practice inclusion and resist building bridges of dialogue.  And it is not enough to honor free speech without using it to defend inclusive excellence for all.

Take the Pledge has received over 1,000 signatories from the UCI community, comprised of faculty, staff, students and campus affiliates. We recognize those who pledge to confront anti-Blackness and build a thriving culture for Black people.

Several new courses are free and open to all UCI students, staff, and faculty, and each for completion in five weeks:

Module 1 – Anti-Blackness in the United States: Black Protest Tradition

Module 2 – Anti-Blackness in the United States: Structures and Mechanisms of De-Valuing Black People

Module 3 – Black Thriving Culture: Allyship

The Inclusive Excellence Certificate Program advances UCI’s commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion and free speech. It equips the campus community to appreciate UCI from the vantage points of different campus constituencies.

The Initiative requires a coherent strategy and purposeful execution to succeed. This is particularly the case in Orange County where Black people comprise a little less than 2% of the general population of 3 million or 60,000 people. The size of the Black community requires a strategy that is simultaneously focused and broad; engaging with Orange County while reaching Black population centers, including Los Angeles, Bay Area, and Sacramento, across the state and the nation.

The final component of the community Initiative revolves around investing in student achievement and honoring Black faculty. Currently, there are several opportunities for continued and accelerated philanthropic support.

Established in 2019 Leadership Education to Advance Diversity–African, Black and Caribbean (LEAD-ABC) is a UCI School of Medicine mission-based program aimed at producing future physicians who are committed to addressing the health needs of African, Black and Caribbean communities in California, the United States, and beyond.

Open to all majors in the School of Social Sciences.

Created by the Office of the Associate Dean with the support of SSARC, this initiative helps undergraduate students leverage their research in advancing the understanding of Black experiences. Students may submit their application until May 21, 2021. Scholarship funding varies from $100-500.

The Academic Excellence Black Scholars House is a first-year experience living learning community. Students residing in the House will learn to successfully navigate the university environment while embracing scholastic achievement and individual identity.

Two UC Irvine students are giving Black storytellers a platform to share their experiences through a podcast and web series.

Sabrina Strings, UCI associate professor of sociology, explains how ‘fatphobia’ is rooted in centuries of racism and how BMI can be very problematic.

Turner is an attorney at Geragos & Geragos and addresses social justice issues in his video series “Is that Justice?” produced with MeidasTouch.

William Bowman, Samueli School assistant professor of materials science and engineering, has won a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation’s Division Of Materials Research.

[Augusta] Savage did not accept the rejection quietly. “She used the Black press to make the limits that she was facing known to the larger national and international public,” Bridget R. Cooks, an associate professor [of art history and African American studies] at University of California, Irvine, said, “She had a real determination and sense of her own talent and a refusal to be denied.” [Subscription required, campus-wide access provided by UCI Libraries. Sign-up here: https://guides.lib.uci.edu/nytimes]

Episode Seven: Dean Barker speaks with the Department of Music Chair Stephen Tucker regarding his experience growing up in Jamaica, training as a conductor, Outreach work with Santa Ana High School, and the dynamic landscape of the Music department.

In honor of Black History Month, UC Irvine Athletics would like to celebrate the service of Paula Smith and her dedication to change in college athletics.

There is a cost to remaining publicly silent in the face of overtly racist and exclusionary attitudes, writes Aomawa Shields.

Aomawa Shields describes how she found her voice to speak the truth about systemic exclusionary and racist attitudes — and the importance of other professors doing so, as well.

Pro bono project with Justice Warriors 4 Black Lives investigates systemic racist police violence

Tayloria N.G. Adams, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and a Henry Samueli Career Development Chair, has earned a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award.

Angeline Dukes, who’s currently a student in the department of neurobiology and behavior at the University of California, Irvine, said it was “wonderful” to find a community of people who had not only succeeded, but overcome the same struggles she’d experienced. She wanted to found the movement in part because of her own struggles as a Black scientist — especially as she felt the mental health impact of the killings of unarmed Black people like Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd earlier this year.

“There are many curators of American art that don’t know anything about African American artists,” Bridget Cooks, a professor of African American studies at UC Irvine, said. … Some say in order for the nation’s celebrated artwork to better reflect our diversity, more outreach is needed. “Inviting people to museums, having open conversations with them about the current conditions, the past, and a sincere desire to do more,” Cooks said.

Bocar A. Ba, UCI assistant professor of economics and others write, “Relative to white officers, Black and Hispanic officers make far fewer stops and arrests, and they use force less often, especially against Black civilians. These effects are largest in majority-Black areas of Chicago and stem from reduced focus on enforcing low-level offenses, with greatest impact on Black civilians. Female officers also use less force than males, a result that holds within all racial groups. These results suggest that diversity reforms can improve police treatment of minority communities.”

UCI scholar’s new book explores intersection of time, space and Black creation

Dear Friends of the Humanities,

I’m pleased to announce that the UCI School of Humanities has earned a Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District VII gold award in the Communications Pivot category for “The Welcome Table with Sydney and Tatum.” The category recognizes initiatives that responded effectively and creatively to the events of 2020—in the case of “The Welcome Table,” the deep relation between our COVID-19 situation and issues of inequality and racial justice. Led by student storytellers and literary journalism majors Sydney Charles and Tatum Larsen, the video interview series highlights Black scholars, staff and alumni in the school.

From the judges: “UC Irvine provides a platform for two talented student storytellers to engage on timely topics of great interest to the community, and with broad reach. A deeply thoughtful and compelling project that other colleges and universities can look to in order to amplify the voices of underrepresented students, alumni, faculty, and staff. Inspiring!”

You can watch all 14 episodes below.

Please join me in congratulating Sydney and Tatum!

Tyrus Miller
Dean, UCI School of Humanities

New study in pharmacy deserts finds vulnerability in Black and Latino communities. Researchers like Cheryl Wisseh aim to reduce health disparities.