Ren R
Graduate Research Assistant
Pronouns: She/Her
About
Ren is a Sociology PhD student and community grounded scholar studying racial attitudes and collective antiracist action among people racialized as white. Her community engaged scholarship interrogates attitudes toward racially egalitarian and reparations policies in white communities and seeks to create strategies to influence collective action. Ren’s research focus arose from her experience working with grassroots organizations and the need to develop effective strategies to engage allies in addressing and dismantling systemic racism. Complementing her research, Ren bridges her academic focus with social justice by supporting the reparations efforts in Asheville, NC, and other municipalities.
She currently serves as a Research Assistant for the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP). Additionally, Ren holds an ongoing role as a research assistant on Dr. Sigrid Luhr’s Engineering Inequality project conducting in-depth interviews with tech workers in the Bay Area and engaging in qualitative data analysis.
Prior to UIC, Ren studied white parents’ racial socialization practices and how the disproportionate distribution of resources and opportunities shapes education inequality while working for a non-profit addressing the opportunity gap in Asheville, NC. She has a background working with community-led organizations and served as the Grant Manager for the Racial Justice Coalition of Asheville to acquire funding for research on reparations and the community’s vision for transformation. These experiences have shaped Ren’s commitment to cultivating relationships and collective action to enact policy change.