Our Research

Highlighted Research Projects

Antiracism research is revolutionary because it aims to identify, understand, and ultimately dismantle the root cause of racial inequities: structural racism. Our Research Library is a curated collection of published antiracist research by our core team and partners, and the projects below are examples of some of our many ongoing antiracist research projects.

Center for Chronic Disease Reduction and Equity Promotion Across Minnesota (NIH—P50)

Chronic disease can be devastating for individuals and costly to health systems, but with appropriate intervention the worst outcomes of chronic disease can be prevented. The Center for Chronic Disease Reduction and Equity Promotion Across Minnesota (C2DREAM), led by the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic, will research the impact of structural and interpersonal racism on these health inequities for people who are Black, Indigenous and racialized people. 

C2DREAM empowers cross-sector collaboration between researchers, health providers, and community members to address the root causes of health disparities. By confronting the fundamental causes of health, we can have huge positive benefits on community health, wellbeing, and dignity. 

Community trauma and pathways to reproductive health inequities (NIH—R01)

Police brutality is a form of structural racism, one that causes ripple effects of trauma through communities of color. This trauma creates measurable harms on BIPOC individuals, including increasing rates of pregnancy complications and preterm birth. Part of this project specifically focuses on the intense community trauma experienced by Black women following the murder of George Floyd. This research will help inform critically needed reform in policing and public safety policy.

A Qualitative Research Study of Structural and Institutional Racism in Health Care for Black Birthing People (Commonwealth Fund)

This work will allow us to conduct qualitative research that will contribute to CARHE's long term goal of developing a population level database of measures of structural and institutional racism by ensuring that the MeasuringRacism Data Portal is informed by the lived experience of Black women of reproductive age in geographic regions across the country (California, Minnesota and Pennsylvania). 

Systems Thinking for Antiracist Research (STAR) Hub (RWJF)

To study the interconnected systems that perpetuate structural racism and to engage affected communities in health policy research, we are creating a multidisciplinary antiracist team of collaborative scholars and experts: The Systems Thinking for Antiracism Research (STAR) Hub. The STAR Hub will play a critical role in researching, identifying, and evaluating ways to create and implement antiracist policy. The five proposed research projects in the STAR Hub will analyze and inform public health and social policies that have the potential to eliminate racial injustice and improve health and well-being.