REGSS Examines Race and Gender in
Politics
From South Africa to the 2012 Presidential Campaign by Donna Ree ve
10 gist from the mill • spri ng 2012
The Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender in the Social Sciences (REGSS) was established on July 1, 2004, as an interdisciplinary center within the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) of Duke University. Its raison d’etre is to bring faculty together from such diverse fields as economics, history, political science, psychology, public policy, and sociology. Before their research can be understood, the differences between race, ethnicity and gender factors must be clearly defined. While gender is self-explanatory—male and female—the lines between race and ethnicity are often blurred. The co-directors of REGSS, Paula D. McClain and Kerry Haynie, use the revised 2010 census form to explain race as an issue of color, specifically black, white, and Asian. As for ethnicity, Haynie explained it as “cultural groups [that] have some race aspects as well.” McClain added that “When we [at REGSS] talk about