PhD Concentration in Economic and Racial Equity

Meet the Next Generation of Social Policy Researchers

The Economic and Racial Equity PhD concentration enables students to develop a theoretical and empirical understanding of the causes, manifestations and consequences of social, racial, and economic inequities and prepares them for challenging careers developing research and policy that addresses and aims to eliminate these inequities. Our faculty and staff work closely with students in the ERE concentration as advisors, mentors, and colleagues, teaching core courses for the concentration, providing funding support, and leading research projects that allow students to put their training to work.

Learn more about Heller's PhD in Social Policy

Meet the IERE Racial Equity Fellows

Meet Our Students

IERE Racial Equity Fellows

Each spring, we solicit proposals from advanced PhD students for the ERE Racial Equity Fellowship Program. Proposals are reviewed by our faculty, and fellows are announced before the beginning of summer. PhD candidates selected as fellows receive additional funding to support research work related to their dissertations. IERE Racial Equity Fellows are outstanding early-stage researchers whose dissertations are focused primarily on issues of racial equity across disciplines and policy areas.

Aaron D. Camp

2024 IERE Racial Equity Fellow

Dissertation Title: Health Programming in Black Churches: An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study

Project Description: The role of the church as a partner in community health promotion, such as collaborative efforts that provide onsite health screenings, HIV/testing, and providing health education to improve the health literacy of community members has been well established. Yet little is known about the existing institutional capital of Black churches and the drivers and barriers they face to appropriately conduct programming designed to address the health needs of congregants. The aim of this dissertation research is to develop a greater understanding of congregational factors and ultimately add to existing knowledge on how health programming is most supported within the Black church. Findings from this study will inform stakeholders, policy makers, and church leaders on how best to engage, and utilize these trusted cultural entities—thus creating pathways to better address racialized health disparities.

adcamp@brandeis.edu

Emily Su Ni Thoman

2024 IERE Racial Equity Fellow

Dissertation Title: From Thin Coalition to Thick Solidarity: A Mixed Methods Examination of the Effects of Asian American Identity on Interracial Minority Linked Fate and Solidarity Building

Project Description: Attention to social identity and identity politics has increased in recent years, impacting both the political and policy fields. As the fastest growing racial group, but also as a uniquely positioned racial group alongside the Black-white binary, Asian Americans influence the discourse on race, racism, and identity in a multitude of ways. This dissertation project utilizes a mixed-methods research design to better understand Asian American identity and the way it impacts minority linked fate, examining the way the racial positioning of Asian Americans as “not white but above all not-Black” (Kim, 2023) has been used to uphold white supremacist and anti-Black policies. More importantly, it explores how Asian Americans can employ their unique racial positioning to contest white supremacist and anti-Black policies (e.g., the rollback of affirmative action and attacks on DEI) and foster more meaningful solidarity with other minoritized groups in the United States.

ethoman@brandeis.edu

Sneha Gantla

2024 IERE Racial Equity Fellow

Dissertation Title: Moment or Movement? An Examination of Philanthropic Foundations’ Response to Racial Injustice.

Project Description: This dissertation seeks to identify and interrogate the internal and external forces that shape philanthropic foundations’ conceptualization and implementation of racial justice. Through a comparative organizational ethnography, as well as a field survey, of foundations in the Greater Boston Area, I aim to examine these organizations’ significance in a racialized liberal, capitalist system, their ideological, structural, and relational connections to the state, society, and economy and the experiences of subordinate actors working within these institutions. Furthermore, this project seeks to make practical contributions to the field by surveying racial justice practices in philanthropy, identifying barriers and opportunities for organizational change, and describing the role of individual and networked actors. The aim is to advance theories of race and politics in sociology, which have paid little attention to philanthropy, and investigate the role of philanthropy in sustaining racial capitalism and liberalism, and the racial state.

gantla@brandeis.edu