We are establishing GRIST as a model academic social lab to drive systemic change through collaborative, research-based interventions.

Our approach

We work in a time shaped by both the growing recognition of racism and a parallel backlash against anti-racist initiatives.

Alongside this tension is a broader anti-academic trend, marked by suspicion toward rigorous research and a dismissive stance on inequality, which is increasingly framed as a matter of opinion rather than evidence.

In this context, GRIST aims to renew the value of knowledge production through interdisciplinary, creative, and experimental research, while addressing pressing methodological and ethical challenges—particularly those that call for the decolonisation of knowledge histories and practices.

We seek to challenge dominant US/UK-centric narratives and to deepen our understanding of the global logics of racisms by fostering intersectional perspectives in both research and public discourse.

Our principles

Our three guiding principles shape our approach to studying the diverse global manifestations of racism, and are deployed as follows:

• Curiosity — The force that drives critical experimentation, encouraging bold, probing questions that reimagine what we know about racisms, and how we know it, across disciplinary and geographical boundaries.
• Collaboration — A commitment to building sustained collectives amongst scholars, organisations, communities, and key public sphere actors, co-creating responses and strengthening leaderships.
• Transformation — The pursuit of engaged research that actively works to dismantle global racisms and generates practical, actionable outcomes.

Our model

Our guiding principles are woven throughout our model of work, which provide a home to each of our research projects:

Our projects