| Program: | Institute for the Study of Academic Racism | | Contact(s): | Barry Mehler, Director: (616) 592-3612 | | Purpose: | To serve as a resource for people interested in monitoring the intellectual trends in academic racism, biological determinism and eugenics | | Created in 1993, the Institute for the Study of Academic Racism at Ferris State University is a resource center for tracking the intellectual and ideological foundations of modern racism and academic networks of racist scholars. ISAR promotes research in academic racism by posting extensive bibliographies and maintaining an on-line archive of primary and secondary research sources. The institute encourages people around the world to take an activist approach to fighting racism by countering racism's intellectual, ideological, and institutional links to mainstream society. For example, ISAR assisted a student research project at the University of Hawaii that focused on Stanley Porteus (1883-1972), a psychologist and academic advocate of segregation and apartheid. The project involved an educational campaign aimed at the campus community as well as the creation of an on-line archive of permanent historical value. As a result of this project, the university's board of regents unanimously voted in April 1998 to change the name of a campus building that had been called "Porteus Hall." ISAR has assisted projects both in the United States and abroad that focus on charting the impact of race and racism on the academic community and other aspects of society. |
