We are writing about the article:

“Seattle U Receives Grant to Improve Upon Racially Diverse Curriculum” by Sean Campbell published on May 10, 2023. 

As the Co-PIs (Co-Investigators) of the curriculum project, “Race, Racialization and Resistance in the US,” we really appreciate the article on this project written by Sean Campbell. We would like to clarify couple of things. 

Sean wrote: “The project will contribute to learning and research regarding the U.S.’s relation to different races and cultures globally.” When Sean sent us a draft of the article, we suggested changing this phrase to: 

“The project would also contribute to learning and research regarding the complex construction of the concept of race, the historical and contemporary processes of racialization, and practices of resistance, in a global context.” 

We would not choose to use the phrase “U.S.’s relation to different races and cultures globally” because it is the kind of phrase that can be open to multiple interpretations. It could raise questions, such as which groups in the U.S. does the “the U.S.” in the phrase refer to? Is it the government? Is it different groups of people? If so, which groups of people? Also, a phrase referring to any country’s relation to “different races” could be interpreted as reducing any given society to different races.

We would also like to correct a factual inaccuracy. Sean wrote: “Out of the 280 grant proposals, only 26 were chosen. The Seattle U professors were also one of two grant recipient groups that proposed a curriculum project as opposed to a research project.”

We would like to clarify that our proposal was one of two grant recipient groups that proposed curriculum projects on the topic of “Race and Racialization in the US” in particular. Among the 12 selected proposals on this topic were 10 research projects and 2 curricular projects including ours. Of the 26 selected proposals in total, 12 were on “Race and Racialization in the US,” 6 on “Civic Engagement and Voting Rights,” and 8 on “Social Justice and the Literary Imagination.”

Finally, we would like to comment on the article’s title. The title we suggested was: “Seattle U Receives Grant on Teaching about Race, Racialization and Resistance.”  The published title of the article, “Seattle U Receives Grant to Improve Upon Racially Diverse Curriculum,” we find, could also possibly lead to different interpretations.

We hope that this letter clarifies the scope and main aims of the project. We would like to reiterate that we really appreciate Sean taking the time to interview us and write the article.

Haejeong Hazel Hahn, Director of the project and Co-PI, Chair and Professor of History

Charles M. Tung, Co-PI, Professor of English

María Bullón-Fernández, Co-PI, Associate Dean for Arts and Humanities, Director of University Honors Program, Professor of English