This year, CRGE celebrates its major 25-year milestone of intersectional work at the University of Maryland. The Consortium on Race, Gender and Ethnicity (CRGE), a university-wide, interdisciplinary research organization and pedagogic/mentoring unit, was founded in 1998 by pioneering faculty who developed a critical area of intersectional scholarship in the contemporary academy. CRGE is the first national interdisciplinary research center of its kind and is at the forefront of advancing equity, inclusion, intersectional qualitative, and mixed-methods research on campus and across the nation. We are uniquely focused on intersectional research and uplifting and mentoring traditionally and historically underrepresented minority (URM) students and early career faculty.

Why are we important to the UMD campus?

• Building human capital and promoting equity is at the core of our mission and programmatic activities
• Interdisciplinary scholarship and collaboration are the driving forces of our research-building efforts.
• Qualitative and mixed methodologies form a central core of our expertise.
• Combining efforts with other units enhances the academic pathways of students and faculty, particularly URM.

CRGE has three unique dimensions that distinguish it from other campus units:

• Focus on the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, class and other dimensions of inequality as they shape the construction and representation of identities, behavior and complex social relations.
• Commitment to qualitative research interests that illustrate the lived experiences of race/ethnic groups and showcase scholars’ innovative research methodologies and interdisciplinary collaborations.
• Engagement in the research pathways of students and faculty to contribute to the next generation of historically and traditionally underrepresented students, scholars and leaders.

Our intersectional scholarship examines the lived experiences of URM and other social and economically disadvantaged populations in public health, medicine and higher education sectors. Our work has investigated the role of mentoring of URM groups and their experiences in the pathway from college through early-career faculty and the role of discriminatory institutional practices on URM faculty health and well-being. Programming seeks to apply effective, equitable, and responsive practices to increase the retention and promotion of URM students and faculty. We sponsor intersectional dissertation research seed grants in partnership with the Office of Graduate Diversity and Inclusion (OGDI) and conduct a national summer Intersectional Qualitative Research Methods Institute (IQRMI) (for early-career faculty on the UMD campus and cosponsor one for advanced graduate students at UT Austin). CRGE has university-wide intersectional faculty affiliates who are committed to social justice and are active in the community and nationwide efforts to advance gender, race, and ethnic relations through intersectional research.

As a first-class intersectional scholarship-driven center, CRGE is dedicated to understanding the intersections of inequality, inequity and social justice and serves as a national example of a thriving and inclusive environment for critically engaged scholars whose research informs solutions to significant social and economic policy concerns.