About

As a research Centre, CIARS brings together faculty, students and community organizations whose research interests and political commitments are in anti-racism and critical race studies.

Our focus is anchored in the critical study of race as they relate to Indigeneity, decolonization, and anti-colonial education. CIARS’ mandate, namely the fostering of interdisciplinary anti-racism studies in education, embraces a broad view of education. In CIARS' view, education can be understood as the processes that influence and contribute to how individuals and their communities come to know the world and act within it. CIARS' faculty and students are deeply committed to an integrative view: all systems of oppression are interlocked and a study of one such system, racism, necessarily entails a study of class exploitation, sexism, ableism, heterosexism, gender and colonial violence.

The Centre is housed in Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto and is part of the Department of Social Justice Education (SJE).