Race &... Conference 2023 - Conference Program

Taste of Race at Pitt Showcase Participants

3Rs (Reading, Racial Equity, Relationships)

School of Education
Office of Child Development

The 3Rs (Reading, Racial Equity, Relationships) is a literacy initiative that was developed by the Early School age Cohort of the Pittsburgh Study, a community-driven intervention study that aims to enhance youth thriving. The 3Rs Initiative aims to improve literacy outcomes in K-3 contexts using a 4-strand approach to support the entire early literacy ecosystem by working with families, classroom teachers, community organizations, and local leaders. A foundational tenet of the 3Rs is that high-quality literacy experiences are inextricably linked to living in an equitable society and having strong relationships between children, adults, and organizations. The 3Rs team believes that enhancing children’s literacy experiences begins with partnering with adults. We have two main strategies for creating meaningful opportunities for adults to develop their knowledge and practices around reading, racial equity, and relationships: (a) high quality, racially affirming picture books, and (b) communities of practice. 

African Studies at Pitt

University Center for International Studies
Center for African Studies

The Center for African Studies will tabling information about the different programs, activities, and services it offers to Pitt students, faculty, staff, and the community.

Becoming White: Greco-Roman Antiquity as Lieu de Mémoire in Modern Racecraft - Poster

Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences & David C. Frederick Honors College
Classics, English Writing, & International Studies

Beginning with a note on the use(s) of Greco-Roman antiquity and its material culture as a lieu de mémoire (Nora 1996, p. xvii) in Western intellectual life, this poster focuses on the phenomenon of whiteness as emergent in the 20th century amongst assimilating European ethnic groups in America. Charting various editions of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's "On the Natural Varieties of Mankind" (1st ed., 1775), we will see an early manifestation of whiteness as a pseudoscientific, sociopolitical category. A tool which, in our cataloguing of immigrant groups, we will see merely serves to create an assemblage of traits (skin color, language, culture) that becomes ideological and idealizing in nature.

CAN I KICK IT? Discussing The Vietnam War

Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences
Departments of Africana Studies and History of Art and Architecture

The first edition of CAN I KICK IT? intimately explores the complexities and nuances of the Vietnam War. This serves as the beginning of a series that delves into broad explorations of particular struggles for Black visibility. In these pages, uncover the lesser-known narratives that often escape and fade with the passage of time. I hope to challenge preconceived historical interpretations and share untold truths of the Black community, having been changed irrevocably by the conflict. May it ignite conversations and foster understanding. 

Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice

School of Law
University of Pittsburgh 

Established in early 2022, the Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law aims to address systemic disparities through a legal contextual lens.

Center for Health Equity (CHE)

School of Public Health
Department of Epidemiology

The Center for Health Equity (CHE) at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health aims to understand and ultimately eliminate health inequities in under-resourced, vulnerable, and underserved communities and populations, particularly in Western Pennsylvania. CHE operationalizes its mission through its multiple programs and initiatives designed to engage and educate students, community members, faculty, and staff about health inequities. The CHE table will provide information and resources for anyone interested in learning more about its programs and initiatives.     

Center for Urban Education

School of Education
Center for Urban Education

General info letting people know who we are and what we do!

Center on Race and Social Problems

School of Social Work
Center on Race and Social Problems

The Center on Race and Social Problems (CRSP) is an academic center in the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work dedicated to dismantling racism and oppression through rigorous research and practice. CRSP conducts and disseminates applied social-science research and scholarship, mentors emerging scholars and develops innovative training and programmatic opportunities for students, faculty/staff and the greater Pittsburgh community with an overarching goal of understanding and addressing inequities and achieving social justice. 

CuPID - Poster

School of Health and Rehabilitation Services and School of Dental Medicine
Occupational Therapy, Physician Assistant Studies, and Pediatric Dentistry

The CuPID (Community, Partnership, Identity, and Dialogue) Educational Program is an IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility) self-paced learning tool for students, staff, trainees, faculty, and experienced professionals. CuPID addresses the need to improve community building and support for underrepresented groups. It uses documentary-style video interviews of diverse individuals supplemented with academic literature on concepts such as social identity and intersectionality to guide the learner in fostering inclusive educational and professional environments.

Department of Africana Studies | Africana Sports Initiative | Journal of Black Studies | Racial Justice and Health Equity Research and Education Collaborative 

Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences
Department of  Africana Studies

The mission of the Department of Africana Studies is to advance the study, research, interpretation, production, and dissemination of knowledge pertaining to the experiences of people of African descent in Africa and the Diaspora. From these perspectives, we are committed to innovative scholarship, excellence in student development, and community empowerment and transformation.

Engaged Campus Learning & Development Team

Office of Engagement & Community Affairs
University of Pittsburgh

Engaged scholarship seeks to discover new knowledge through activities that collaboratively generate, exchange or apply academic and community knowledge and practices through reciprocal partnerships among members of the University and members of the broader public. Engaged Scholarship includes community engaged teaching and research.

The Office of Engagement and Community Affairs collaborates across the institution to produce and amplify unique resources, programming, and initiatives that support community engaged scholarship projects and the professional development and advancement of engaged scholars at Pitt and within our broader communities. 

Exploring Economic Abuse in the Lives of Pregnant and Postpartum Survivors - Poster

School of Public Health
Department of Epidemiology

This qualitative study will utilize individual interviews with intimate partner violence survivors and advocates to explore how economic abuse manifests within the perinatal period. This poster will specifically focus on the lived experiences of marginalized survivors.

Faculty Collaborative Research Incubator

Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences
Center for Ethnic Studies Research, UCIS

The Faculty Collaborative Research Incubator supports Pitt researchers who are studying within the field of Ethnic Studies. This program cultivates a space for researchers of various fields to collaborate and develop multidisciplinary projects. Through the Incubator, faculty are provided with professional development, networking opportunities, and community engagement. 

Fostering Trust and Advancing Health Equity: An Innovative Pilot Curriculum Rooted in Principles of Trustworthiness - Poster

School of Public Health
Behavioral and Community Health Sciences

This poster will present the pilot results of a newly developed, educational curriculum that sought to educate community health professionals on medical mistrust and on how to establish their trustworthiness with minority and vulnerable communities. There are five core components and overarching lessons in the curriculum:

1. Defining Medical Mistrust: Medical mistrust is the belief that medical, research, and public health institutions do not genuinely care for patients’ interests.
2. Explaining the Origin of Medical Mistrust: Science, research, and medicine have been used to harm minority and vulnerable communities and these institutions continue to perpetuate harm in the form of institutional policies and practices. Medical mistrust is a justified and valid reaction to this abuse.
3. Discussing the Impact of Medical Mistrust: Medical mistrust is associated with numerous health disparities in minority communities, impacting healthcare engagement, vaccine uptake, medication adherence and many other health outcomes. It is an important risk factor and social determinant of health.
4. Who Solves the Medical Mistrust Problem?: Medical mistrust is rooted in historical and current trauma perpetrated against minority and vulnerable communities and placing the burden of resolving medical mistrust on these communities perpetuates further injustice. The onus of rebuilding trust falls on the scientific, public health and medical communities as the perpetrators of abuse.  
5. Introducing the Principles of Trustworthiness: Trustworthiness refers to the belief that medical, research, academic, and public health institutions are deserving of trust where trust is an individual's or group's willingness to be vulnerable to another party based on the confidence that the latter party adheres to the principles of trustworthiness.

Health Sciences DEI

School of Medicine
Health Sciences

Our office exists to foster an inclusive environment for students, trainees, and faculty within the health professions schools. The HSDEI facilitates a spectrum of educational sessions, participates in paneled dialogue, and serves in advisory positions, among other requests.

Investing Now

University Educational Outreach Center
Office of the Provost

Originating from The Swanson School of Engineering in 1988, Investing Now is a college preparatory program created to stimulate, support, and recognize the high academic performance of pre-college students from groups that are historically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors and careers. After a hiatus due to COVID-19, Investing Now was retooled and relaunched in the summer of 2023 as a program of the new University Educational Outreach Center (EOC) within the Office of the Provost. We welcomed 30 youth who represented 15 area high schools. 90% of youth who participated identified as Black/African American. Faculty from the Swanson School of Engineering, the School of Health and Rehab Sciences, the ULS Archives & Special Collections and the Center for Creativity led hands-on activities. Investing Now is a year-long program that includes mandatory tutoring, mentorship, advising, and social opportunities that will demystify college and career pathways for underserved youth. 

¿Me Entiendes? The Impact of Health Literacy on Health Outcomes in the Hispanic Population - Poster

School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Department of Physician Assistant Studies 

Improving overall health outcomes in underserved communities has been a major public health goal within the past decade; especially for low-income, Spanish-speaking populations. Overall, the Spanish-speaking patient population is more likely to be in poor health than their English-speaking counterparts. One of the largest contributing factors to the adverse health outcomes in the Hispanic population is the presence of a language barrier that manifests as poor health literacy. Low health literacy due to a language barrier can be associated with the presence of multiple chronic conditions within the Hispanic population.

OEDI Programming

Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
University of Pittsburgh 

OEDI plans and promotes programming specifically designed provide a sense of belonging and inclusion for minoritized populations of staff, faculty, and students at the University. 

Parenting While Black Program

School of Social Work
University of Pittsburgh 

Parenting While Black is an innovative parent support program started at the Pitt Center on Race and Social Problems in February of 2021. The program aims to support the healthy development and well-being of African American parents and their adolescent children, particularly in the wake of the racialized challenges that have been exposed in the United States over the last year.

Pharmacoequity Conference

Schools of the Health Sciences
Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing

"Pharmacoequity" describes a health system where all patients have access to the highest quality, evidence-based medications, regardless of race, gender, or social status. In 2022 and 2023, Pitt's Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing (CP3) held the first conferences dedicated to convening professionals and students interested in advancing pharmacoequity, showcasing the breadth of pharmacoequity research and policy work taking place at the University of Pittsburgh to a national audience. The next Pharmacoequity Conference is slated for May 3, 2024, and we welcome attendees, speakers, and others to partner with us to learn more about this topic and to network with others to further this work. As pharmacoequity is also one of CP3's core missions, we also welcome other scholars who are interested in collaborating on this research with us.

Race &…Initiative 

Office of the Provost
Faculty Diversity and Development

Race &... is the shorthand name of Pitt’s Race and Social Determinants of Equity, Health and Well-being Initiative, which seeks to demonstrate the University of Pittsburgh’s commitment to investigate and ameliorate racial disparities in equity, health, and well-being locally, nationally, and globally. 

Race + IP

School of Law
University of Pittsburgh 

Race + IP is a collective project dedicated to cultivating community and collaboration around the study of race, coloniality, and intellectual properties. An inaugural conference was held around this topic in 2017 at Boston College, with subsequent conferences being held at NYU Law School in 2019, Florida A&M University College of Law in 2021, and University of Pittsburgh School of the Law in 2023. The aim of the project is to create a productive intellectual space for considering how frameworks such as Critical Race Studies (CRS), Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), Ethnic Studies, Black Studies, Asian American Studies, and more can help to illuminate the inequities that arise in copyright, patent, trademark, right of publicity, trade secret, and unfair competition law. While we do not believe that a single model of race can apply transnationally, we believe that it is useful to cast a wide net around that term as an analytic to understand how color, ethnicity, nation, religion, and other markers of identity can result in material exclusion. In undertaking this racial inquiry project, we are interested in building a healthy and vibrant community, with shared goals, visions, and intimacies. 

Time to Act: A Rubric-Based Approach for Institutionalizing Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the Institute for Clinical Research Education

School Medicine
Department of Medicine

Attacks on minoritized communities and increasing awareness of the societal causes of health disparities have combined to highlight deep systemic inequities. In response, academic health centers have prioritized justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) in their strategic goals. To have a sustained impact, JEDI efforts cannot be siloed; rather, they must be woven into the fabric of our work and systematically assessed to promote meaningful outcomes and accountability. 

To this end, the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Clinical Research Education assembled a task force to create and apply a rubric to identify short and long-term JEDI goals, assess the current state of JEDI at our Institute, and make recommendations for immediate action. To ensure deep buy-in, we gathered input from diverse members of our academic community, who served on targeted subcommittees. We then applied a three-step process to ensure rapid forward progress. We emerged with concrete actions for priority focus and a plan for ongoing assessment of JEDI institutionalization. 

We believe our process and rubric offer a scalable and adaptable model for other institutions and departments to follow as we work together across academic medical institutions to put our justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion goals into meaningful action. 

TRIO McNair Scholars Program

​Office of Provost
Student Success

Our program supports students from their undergraduate education all the way through to their attainment of a PhD. During your undergraduate career, we assist in preparing you for graduate study, research, career pathways after school, and so much more. The McNair program’s ultimate goal is for you to be prepared to enter graduate study and attain a PhD or EdD degree.