BRIDGE initiative to promote collaborative study of inequality, diversity

A new initiative has been launched to unite Rice University researchers studying inequality and diversity.

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Building Research on Inequality and Diversity to Grow Equity (BRIDGE) is funded with support from the Office of the Provost. Led by Jenifer Bratter, a professor of sociology in the School of Social Sciences, the initiative will focus on building a community of scholars to focus on inequality in diverse communities such as Houston.

“We want to use Houston as a laboratory,” Bratter said. “We intend to chart causes of inequality here and how they emerge, and seek to answer new questions that arise because of the way things are organized presently.”

In addition to Bratter, BRIDGE is supported by a steering committee with faculty representation from across the campus, including psychology, statistics, architecture, music and history.

“The initiative aims to speaks to a wide audience, across departments and school,” she said.

Bratter said the idea for the program emerged because there was no organization on campus that focused solely on inequality.

“We’d like to make connections between all people who are doing this type of research,” she said.

This new initiative comes at a time when Houston is more diverse than ever.

“Houston has been a majority-minority city for a while,” Bratter said. “We’re very interested in thoroughly exploring what happens when the racial majority is in the minority.”

BRIDGE currently has an open call for research, and up to three grants per year will be awarded to scholars interested in doing research related to the initiative’s vision, Bratter said.

She hopes a number of questions will be answered through the program’s work, including:

-What research methods are needed to study inequality from diverse perspectives?

-How is inequality spatially organized?

-To what degree is advantage or disadvantage concentrated and what are the consequences for communities, individuals, and families?

-To what degree is inequality an enduring, intergenerational feature?

BRIDGE will also bring in visiting scholars and identify collaborators for research projects at Rice.

Ultimately, Bratter hopes the initiative will help develop strategies that can effectively alleviate gaps in equality.

More information on BRIDGE is available at https://bridge.rice.edu/.