What is REIS?

The Marquette University Center for RACE, ETHNIC, AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES is an interdisciplinary endeavor that promotes critical academic scholarship on the workings of racial/ethnic identity, the persistence of racism (and other forms of social oppression), and the enduring struggle of Native American and indigenous communities in light of centuries of domination and exclusion. 

Modeled after post-civil rights conceptualizations of Ethnic Studies, REIS is an umbrella program that serves as a hub for several majors and minors, for community outreach and research, and for campus collaboration. Fueled by recent cluster-hiring and bringing together individuals from numerous departments and colleges, REIS provides various forms of support (mentorship, a sense of community, and leadership opportunities) alongside opportunities for faculty to obtain feedback on research projects falling within its purview. As such, this program promotes ethical, embodied-scholarship that allows Marquette University to realize what faith, excellence, service, and leadership mean when these ideals courageously transcend internal and external borders here on campus or in Milwaukee, the Midwest, and beyond.

While previously housed in the College of Arts and Sciences, REIS is now under the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, in the Office of the Provost. We believe that doing the work of REIS means thinking about the ways that work across the university must and can be done to improve the climate for all faculty, staff, and students and particularly those from historically underrepresented groups. Marquette students, staff, and faculty have long-fought for  access, opportunities, and curriculum changes to reflect our changing world and the formation of this Center is another step toward that goal. 

 Check out our short and long-term vision. 

Marquette is now classified as an emerging Hispanic Serving Institute, a promise made in 2016. To read more about the HSI Initiative, progress, and the university's ongoing commitment to this mission, click here. 

• Africana Studies (major and minor) 
• Arab and Muslim American Studies (minor) 
• Latinx Studies (minor) 
• Native American and Indigenous Studies: in progress. 

Through these majors, this program offers students the academic space to explore the structural, political, and institutional power dynamics that give racial, ethnic, and indigenous identities their shape and meaning.

According to the 2019 U.S. Census, the city of Milwaukee has 590,157 residents, from which 38.8 percent identify as Black, 35.4 as White,18.8 percent as Hispanic or Latino, and 4.3 as Asian. Four percent of residents identify as two or more races. And yet, our city remains one of the most segregated in our country. The Center for REIS is born out of the need to seed change throughout our campus and our city through collaborative research, action, dialogue and information sharing. 

Since the 1967 riots against racial inequality, to wide-spread protests in 2016, to the marches and rallies of 2020, Milwaukee's minority communities have fought in the name of social justice for over 50 years. To read more check out this brief history.

Here in Milwaukee, and Marquette, we acknowledge that we are on the land and waters of our ancestors. In addition to Marquette's Land and Water Acknowledgment, check out the Marquette University Indigenous History Digital Mapping Project, now on view in Raynor Memorial Library.