Fall 2025

Thank you for your interest in the Race and Ethnic Studies Institute (RESI) at Texas A&M University. For over 30 years, RESI has been a hub and a leader for cutting-edge work related to race and ethnic studies. It was founded with the purpose of (1) generating connections between faculty researchers, (2) promoting the excellent knowledge being generated by our faculty and students, and (3) conducting its own research to inform policymakers, researchers, educators, and the general public. It is toward this inherent research-focused mission that I direct all of my attention as Director of RESI.

It has been a true blessing to serve as the Institute's Director for another year. To play a small role in helping this Institute advance established programs, increase the Institute’s visibility, and cultivate a community in which nascent and established scholars doing critical race and ethnic studies scholarship can thrive—to play a part in all of that continues to be a highlight of my career.

If the 2023-2024 academic year was a period of rebuilding for RESI, then the 2024-2025 academic year was marked by expansion, growth, and maturation. This has been another year of growth for RESI. As of this writing, RESI has over 280 opt-in members on our mailing list, 72 faculty affiliates (31% up from last year), and 55 graduate student affiliates (83% up from last year). These affiliates, mailing list members, and scores of additional social media followers are among the first to find out about the happenings of RESI’s working groups, RESI’s faculty research colloquia (2-3 per semester), RESI’s funded co-sponsorship events (15 last year), RESI’s workshops (7 last year), and RESI’s grant programs that target faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates.

Our faculty affiliates are incredibly productive scholars in their fields—producing at least 150 publications and receiving 4 external grants and 3 external fellowships in 2024-2025. RESI’s grant programs have continued to be successful. RESI funded 2 Interdisciplinary Faculty Seed Grants, 8 Faculty Small Seed Grants, 4 RESI-Cantú Graduate Research Fellowships, 9 Graduate Student Small Research Grants, 3 Undergraduate Research Grants, and 15 co-sponsorships. In sum, RESI funded 10 faculty projects, 13 graduate student projects, and 3 undergraduate student projects; and we hosted 6 research colloquia, 7 workshops, and co-sponsored an additional 15 research-centered events (talks, symposia)— another ambitious year of support.

RESI’s own research has also advanced in measurable ways this year. Receiving its first external grant—a 5-year, $4,571,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation. It is worth noting here, that the grant is the largest Mellon grant in Texas A&M University System history.

All said, 2025-2026 was another fantastic year made possible by support from the College of Arts & Sciences, the Cantú Endowment, RESI’s exemplary staff, and the faculty and students who have been actively engaged in and by all that we do. As Director, I look forward to all the exciting scholarship and intellectual engagement that the coming year will bring.

Sincerely,