CRES Institute at St. John’s is Launched

November 3, 2021

The Institute for Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) at St. John’s University was recently launched on the Queens, NY, campus at a prayerful and uplifting dedication ceremony.

The CRES Institute is a research institute that will work with faculty, administrators, and staff across the University who seek to develop collaborative research projects with outside groups to examine and explore solutions to systemic racism.

The recent ribbon-cutting ceremony was followed by an open house in the institute’s new administrative office, which is housed in room 129 of Newman Hall.

In his remarks at the ceremony, Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P., President of the University, quoted a New Testament passage (John 8:32) that is often cited in academic circles to describe the importance and power of learning.

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” he stated to a gathering of students, faculty, administrators, and staff assembled outside in the Newman Hall courtyard.

“Central to the work of Catholic and Vincentian education is to explore truth and to educate students for true freedom,” Fr. Shanley continued. “Truth is a higher form of knowledge, and we must always examine and educate to truly be free.”

The academic programs that form both the minor and major in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies are interdisciplinary programs based in St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The major was approved by the New York State Education Department in early October. The minor was approved by the St. John’s College Faculty Council in Fall of 2020, and initial classes were first offered in the spring.

“This is a hopeful day,” expressed Simon G. Møller, Ph.D., Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, University Distinguished Professor, and Provost Endowed Chair. “We did much work to get here, and there is more work to be done.”

Leading the work and effort of the institute are Natalie P. Byfield, Ph.D., Founding Director, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, and Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and Rev. Jean-Pierre M. Ruiz, S.T.D., Assistant Director, CRES, and Associate Professor, Department of Theology and Religious Studies.

“The Institute for Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at St. John’s is being implemented as an essential task because we live in a moment when structural racism has become that much more evident as we all grapple with the lasting impact of the police murder of George Floyd and recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a disparate impact on communities of color and other underserved communities,” remarked Dr. Byfield.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a framework used to better understand racism and the creation of racial groupings in the United States and the world. CRT incorporates a multiplicity of perspectives or voices to understand how race operates as an organizing construct in society. Rather than focus on individual prejudice, it instead looks at how some systems embed harmful and unjust practices that lead to unequal outcomes based on racial grouping.

The work of the institute will provide an important framework for analyzing the seen and unseen ways that race operates within all institutions and structures of American society.

“As a University, we share a commitment to academic excellence in our teaching and research, and the institute aims to provide programming and mentorship that fulfills our Catholic and Vincentian mission to be a model of diversity, inclusion, social justice, and equity for all,” observed Fr. Ruiz.

As part of the CRES launch, Ginew Benton, a Native American filmmaker local to the Hamptons, NY, delivered remarks emphasizing the importance of teaching history and recognizing and remembering those who came before us and occupied local land.

Later that afternoon, Mr. Benton screened and discussed his award-winning short film, Looking Glass, which chronicles a young Native American man trying to go back in time to prevent his father’s murder and understand his true purpose in creation. The film screening was followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker in The Little Theatre.