OVERVIEW

The University of California, Riverside has received grants from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations totaling $580,000 for projects that study the impact of cultural diversity on society and the arts in the United States. These are the largest foundation grants ever received by UCR’s College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. 

The research projects funded by these grants reflect the debates about western culture in this time of changes brought about by global trade, travel and cyber communications.   The studies undertaken with these grants will focus on aspects of the social and cultural diversity of the United States. Professor Emory Elliott, director of the Center for Ideas and Society, will lead the research projects. 

“We now live in a global society in which the diversity of the United States with its tensions and its social cohesion is for many the image of the future,” Elliott said.  “Latin-American, Native-American and African and Asian cultures are changing the social and cultural assumptions in this country, and those in other countries are very interested in what is happening here.  These foundation grants have made UCR ground zero for the study and practice of cultural and social diversity.”

Among the activities the Ford grant will fund is a series of small conferences on the developments in the arts and writings of African, Asian, and Latino Americans.