Research Revealed: Antiracism Scholarship and Action

We stand in solidarity with the Black community and join the global community outraged by the senseless murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and the countless Black lives lost as a result of police violence. We are committed to using our leadership and resources to build a research program that confronts racism and amplifies Black voices. We are devoted to listening, learning, identifying, and helping to dismantle the systems and structures that have led to severe racial disparities in our community and our country. We invite your suggestions and comments as we engage in this ongoing work. Black lives matter.

Spotlight On: Antiracism Research

EMERGING LEADERSHIP
Ibram X. Kendi Launches BU Center for Antiracist Research
The leading scholar and historian will launch a new University-wide center to “solve the seemingly intractable problems of racial inequity and injustice.”

COLLECTIVE ENGAGEMENT
Day of Collective Engagement to Highlight Antiracism Scholarship at BU
The daylong forum on Wednesday, June 24 will include a Research on Tap event highlighting emerging scholarship from BU faculty on racism and antiracism.

SCHOLARSHIP SPOTLIGHT
BU Initiative on Cities Funds Study on Race and Policing
Two BU sociologists received seed funding to examine the effects of COVID-19 on low-level policing—including racial inequities in rates of police-initiated interactions.

COMMUNITY ACTION
Research Teams Make Antiracist Plans
Hundreds of BU researchers, staff, and students participated in #ShutDownSTEM, a day of action dedicated to challenging systemic, anti-Black racism in science and academia.

Ten tangible actions white academics can take to support Black faculty, staff, and students (Dr. Jasmine Roberts via Medium)

Sample antiracism discussion guide (ARROWS)

Resources for reading, watching, and doing (Howard Thurman Center)

Find Funding

Our COVID-19 research funding opportunities listing includes 100+ funding calls from federal agencies, foundations, and industry.

Founder Gym is an online program that offers training to underrepresented entrepreneurs on raising money to scale tech startups. Applications for the next cohort are due Tuesday, August 4.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science is accepting applications for its Science & Technology Policy Fellowship through November 1.

Manage an Award

Research administrators are invited to access a new suite of online trainings on the grant project lifecycle, from preparing a proposal to award closeout. 

Department administrators and principal investigators, a new electronic workflow for student salary adjustment request forms goes into effect Wednesday, July 1.

Conduct Research

In February, Diversity & Inclusion, in collaboration with the Office of Research, hosted exploratory meetings to discuss how to more fully support scholars doing antiracism and LGBTQIA+ research. As we prepare fall programming, faculty with scholarship in these areas are invited to join two online communities to connect with colleagues.

A new Affinity Research Collaborative (ARC), titled Respiratory Viruses: A Focus on COVID-19, aims to dissect how the virus invades the lung epithelium, replicates in cells, and is counteracted by the host immune defense—to help design diagnostics, preventive agents, and therapeutics. Interested faculty should contact Dr. Markus Bosmann, or for general questions about ARCs, Dr. Katya Ravid.

Promote Your Work

Ready to publicize new research? Last year, when BU engineers discovered a vulnerability that could allow third parties to obtain sensitive information from Bluetooth devices, the story made waves with 9k page views, 15k engagements and 115k reached on social media, and 50+ pieces of coverage. Read more about how the researchers worked with BU’s public relations and editorial teams, the outreach, and takeaways in a new PR case study.

Notes & News

The Research Working Group continues efforts to reintroduce on-campus research previously put on hold. Faculty PIs ready to return to campus can find recovery planning tools in the Research Recovery Toolkit, which also includes reentry resources for those PIs and labs that have received formal approval to return to campus.

Assistant Professor William Boley, Mechanical Engineering (ENG), received a Young Investigator Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Professor John Byers, Computer Science (CAS), was named to the Information Science and Technology Study Group of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for a three-year term.

Assistant Professor Manuel Egele, Electrical & Computer Engineering (ENG) was honored with an NSF CAREER award.

Professor Ibram X. Kendi, History (CAS) and Director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research, conducted a virtual TED talk on Tuesday, June 9 that received over 700k views in its first week.

Professor Nazli Kibria, Sociology (CAS) and Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Social Sciences, received a Voices of Economic Opportunity Grand Challenge Grant from the Gates Foundation and Raikes Foundation.

Associate Professor Ahmad ‘Mo’ Khalil, Biomedical Engineering (ENG), Associate Director of BU’s Biological Design Center, was awarded a Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship.

Assistant Professor Judith C. Scott, Clinical Practice (SSW), was featured in The Washington Post on talking to children about racism.

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