RIVERSIDE, Calif. \u2013 UC Riverside\u2019s Center for Ideas and Society<\/a> has been awarded a $208,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support a two-year series of seminars exploring diversity at UCR and in Southern California.<\/p>\n The seminar series \u2013 \u201cAdvancing Intercultural Studies\u201d \u2013 will examine changing perceptions of ethnic, cultural and cosmopolitan identities, the practices of immigrant religions and developments in civic and political engagement, said Georgia Warnke, distinguished professor of political science and director of the center.<\/p>\n As one of the most diverse public research universities in the country, UCR is uniquely positioned to explore questions about the benefits and challenges of diversity, she said, among them, \u201chow do we capture the contributions of a diverse student population, and how do we enhance learning from that?\u201d<\/p>\n Because of UCR\u2019s undergraduate demographics \u2013 42 percent are under-represented minorities \u2013 the inclusion of undergraduate and graduate students in the seminars is important in its creation of a pipeline to increase the diversity of American university and college faculty, Warnke said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe seminars of \u2018Advancing Intercultural Studies\u2019would help prepare UCR undergraduates for the sort of work they will do in graduate school by offering them the opportunity to interact with faculty and graduate students as equal partners in a scholarly inquiry while, at the same time, providing mentorship support for their research endeavors,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd, as colleges and universities in the 21st century come to mirror the diversity of UCR, it will be critical that future faculty participate in developing multi-cultural and multi-ethnic ways of thinking, researching and teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n The first of four quarterly seminars will begin meeting in January. Each seminar will be composed of four faculty members, and four graduate and four undergraduate students, each of whom will write a paper based on research produced during the quarter. The seminars are not open to the public, but a concluding conference in spring 2016 will be held at UCR\u2019s Culver Center in downtown Riverside and will be a public event. The New York-based Andrew W. Mellon Foundation<\/a> makes grants in five core program areas: Higher Education and Scholarship in the Humanities<\/a>; Arts and Cultural Heritage<\/a>; Scholarly Communications<\/a>; Diversity<\/a>; and International Higher Education and Strategic Projects<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Georgia](\"http:\/\/ucrtoday.ucr.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Georgia-Warnke1-e1412977692754.jpg\")
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\nSeminar topics are:<\/p>\n\n