UMass Boston

About Us

  • The William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture was founded at the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1984 to address the concerns of Black communities in Boston and Massachusetts through research, technical assistance, and public service. The Institute takes its name from early twentieth-century African-American activist William Monroe Trotter, whose political advocacy, radical journalism, and Black internationalism placed Black Diasporic communities across the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa in critical conversation.
  • Mission: To address the concerns of Black communities in Boston and Massachusetts through critical research, public advocacy, and community engagement.
  • Vision: To be a thriving intellectual hub that can support the mission of social justice for Boston’s Black Diasporas via digital humanities, innovative research, and local and global collaborations. 
  • Research: Through a research nexus of social advocacy, digital humanities, and community engagement, Trotter seeks to map and archive Black Boston’s complex political, cultural, and socio-economic experiences. This includes research -driven explorations of the intersections between race, community development, health, technology, education, gender, sustainability, diasporas, and environmental justice. The Institute aims to inform the public about the challenges and opportunities facing Black Boston, via our policy brief series Resilience, and our longstanding Trotter Review, a journal of articles addressing current Black studies, race, and race relations in the United States and abroad. By disseminating such research, it seeks not only to address racial disparities but to also support the socio-economic resilience of Black communities. The Institute also publishes research reports and occasional papers on a broad range of topics in the areas of education, employment and training, public health, economic and community development, as well as race relations. Research and other Institute activities are facilitated by research and faculty associates.

William Monroe Trotter Institute

100 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, MA 02125-3393
617.287.5880

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