Overview
The Racial Justice Lab (RJL) explores the challenges of acting responsibly in relation to real-world problems of racial injustice. It is a collaborative, creative, experimental, and problem-centered space for testing, applying, and extending the ideas that emerge from the growing philosophical literature on racial justice. It is a social ethics humanities lab which, like laboratories in the natural sciences, aims to diagnose and solve real-world problems.
The RJL is a lab not in the sense of a physical space dedicated to experimental work, but in the broader sense of an organization devoted to creating opportunities for active engagement with the world, informed by the insights derived from systematic inquiry. RJL participants seek to engage the social world, informed by philosophy and social theory, animated by a concern for the distressingly intractable problem of racial justice.
The following projects are/were run out of the RJ Lab:
Fall 2022
- “37208 Creates,” a racial justice art space.
Spring 2022
- “37208 Creates,” a racial justice art space.
- Philosophy for Black Lives (P4BL), a speaker series.
Fall 2021
- “37208 Creates,” a racial justice art space.
- Philosophy for Black Lives (P4BL), a speaker series.
Summer 2021
- Racial Justice Art Space, “37208 Creates”
- Philosophy for Black Lives (P4BL) speaker series
- Forensic Philosophy Project
- TELOS–Philosophy for kids
Spring 2021
- Racial Justice Art Space, “37208 Creates”
- Philosophy for Black Lives (P4BL) speaker series
- Forensic Philosophy Project
- TELOS–Philosophy for kids
Fall 2020
- Racial Justice Art Space, “37208 Creates”
- Philosophy for Black Lives (P4BL) speaker series
- Forensic Philosophy Project
- TELOS–Philosophy for kids
Team
Lab and GCI participants include graduate fellows, postdoctoral researchers, undergraduate students, and affiliate scholars from outside of VU. Each participant will join one of the core project teams and work with the team members to design, carry out, and document the work.
Click here to see the full team.
Grand Challenge Initiative on Racial Justice
Members of the RJL are also involved with an aligned, university-wide initiative, the “Racial Justice and the Third Reconstruction” Grand Challenge Initiative (GCI) research project. Click here to read more about this adjacent research project.
Partners
The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy
The Vanderbilt University Department of Philosophy
Contact
Paul.C.Taylor@vanderbilt.edu
Eric.j.ritter@vanderbilt.edu