Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
UC San Diego

The Center's research, teaching, publication, and community outreach activities can be divided into four major theme areas: the State and Construction of Citizenship; Race and Ethnic Relations in California; Latino Sexualities; and Language and Ethnicity. The State and the Construction of Citizenship Group works with several graduate students to investigate how youth cultures in the United States are currently imagined and represented. Youth of color are a major target of the criminal justice system, and in response, this group is focusing on the citizenship rights of young people. The group recently organized a major national conference on the theme of youth violence, entitled "Shooting Back: Reframing the Politics of Youth Violence." The Language and Ethnicity Group coordinates community outreach and formal research seminar. The community outreach effort, known as "La Clase Magica," is establishing pilot projects to address the under-representation of Latinos in higher education. After-school study halls, teacher-parent conferences and visits to the University are scheduled to help at-risk high school students become more familiar with the University of California.