Advancing Scholarship on Race and Difference:
The James Weldon Johnson Institute
In the Footsteps of an Enduring Leader
Established in 2007, the James Weldon Johnson Institute (JWJI) for the Study of Race and Difference was the first institute at Emory University committed to supporting and advancing research on the modern civil rights movement. It is also the first Emory research center named in honor of the achievements of an African American. James Weldon Johnson was a leading contributor to the Harlem Renaissance. He was an attorney, educator, diplomat, writer, and composer of Lift Every Voice and Sing, often referred to as the Black National Anthem. He was an activist for civil rights and social justice and served as the executive secretary for the NAACP, where he worked to enact federal anti-lynching legislation.
According to JWJI’s current director, Dr. Andra Gillespie, there is no better place for scholarship and dialogue on race and difference than Emory. And the figure of Johnson as a polymath underscores JWJI’s commitment to pursuing racial justice across a wide variety of disciplines.
“The Institute’s first director, Rudolph Byrd, always believed that Emory should be at the center of discussions on race. Atlanta is a destination location for this type of research because there are so many resources here and because of the city’s role in civil rights history. Emory’s faculty have always carried out highly-regarded research on race.”
She believes that JWJI provides a platform to convene important national scholarly discussions on race and to support the work of scholars studying race at Emory and nationally at critical stages of research production. “My responsibility is to pick up where Rudolph, Carol Anderson and Tyrone Foreman [JWJI’s previous directors] left off, evolve the vision, and bring it forward.”
Today, the Institute’s mission supports the study of race and the intersectionality of race, gender, sexuality, and other social dimensions. Through scholarship, programing, and public engagement, the Institute supports examination of how these issues shape individual and institutional experiences.
Creating Space for Research to Thrive
Since its inception, the Institute has provided critical support to scholars finishing major research projects on topics related to race and difference. Through two linchpin offerings designed to bring external scholars to Emory, Dissertation Fellowships for pre-doctoral scholars and Post-Doctoral Fellowships, the Institute maintains the pipeline of innovative scholarship that addresses racial disparities and provides innovative prescriptions to reducing inequality. These fellowships are endowed through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
“Our fellows have published at least 15 monographs related to their fellowship projects, in addition to journal articles,” Gillespie remarked. “The topics vary, as we select fellows based on the creativity and relevance of the project. Of course, new book projects are in process and should be published in the years to come. In addition, one of our fellows has since gone on to produce an award-winning documentary. Pearl Dowe at Oxford and I run a journal (The National Review of Black Politics) out of JWJI for the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. And we have collected data on local and national elections that is currently under peer review.”
The Dissertation Fellowships are for pre-doctoral scholars in their final year of graduate school (for eligibility and application information, click here). The Post-Doctoral Scholar Fellowships are open to individuals who earned the PhD in 2019 or later (for eligibility and application information, click here). The participants for each cohort receive a generous stipend and will be in residence at the Johnson Institute for the 2021-22 academic year. The deadline for application to both fellowships is February 25, 2021. The Mellon-funded dissertation fellowships are matched by a dissertation completion fellowship sponsored by the Laney Graduate School. While the application process for the LGS fellowship concluded last fall, news of the 2022-2023 application process will be available in Fall 2021.
“I would encourage our faculty colleagues to share the news of these fellowships across their professional network. They provide crucial funding and space for emerging scholars, and the fellowships allow Emory-based faculty to get to know promising scholars at early stages of their careers. Today’s fellows could become tomorrow’s research collaborators or even faculty colleagues,” Gillespie said.
Engaging and Inspiring Scholarship
The Race and Difference Colloquium Series
Another key pillar of the Institute is a weekly lecture series devoted to contemporary scholarship. The Race and Difference Colloquium Series provides rich opportunities for students and faculty to hear from leading national scholars on their academic research. Weekly programming spurs learning and conversation on a broad range of interdisciplinary subjects.
“There is something interesting and generative in every one of these talks. It is a fantastic opportunity that is available to everyone,” Gillespie said. “I compare it to the person walking down the aisle of a library searching for one book but finding 10 compelling resources that they didn’t originally consider.”
A weekly calendar of events, currently offered online, can be found on the colloquium series website.
Looking Ahead
As the JWJI evolves, Gillespie says there will be future opportunities to engage Emory faculty and support their work. “We will be launching more inward-facing opportunities soon. There is an exciting announcement on the horizon, but I’ll leave it at that,” she said.
Visit the JWJI website to learn about programming, meet the visiting scholars, register for a colloquium series event or view videos of previous events, or view the quarterly newsletters.
For further reading here are some books authored by former scholars from JWJI Fellows Program:
Daniel Winuwe Rivers (2011-2012): Radical Relations: Lesbian Mothers, Gay Fathers and Their Children in the United States since World War II (UNC Press, 2015).
Daniel Winuwe Rivers (2011-2012): Radical Relations: Lesbian Mothers, Gay Fathers and Their Children in the United States since World War II (UNC Press, 2015).
Here are more Centers and Institutes at Emory doing research related to race, social justice, inequality, and/or inequity:
*This list is not comprehensive.
About this Story:
Written by Maureen Clayton. Designed by Jenna Heaton. Produced by Clara Riddick and the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research at Emory University.