Home | Institute | Archeology | Research | Remembering Pioneers | Museum

African Scientific
Research Institute

About ASRI

Address

University of Illinois at Chicago (MC347)
412 S. Peoria Street
Suite B-11
Chicago , IL 60607
(206) 555-2512

Map

The African Scientific Research Institute is a leading, nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving African American culture as a legacy for future generations.  The institute is comprised of multi-disciplinary scientists and historical scholars who have come together to trace back that part of African American history to what we have identified as the first progenitors

Our Mission

The African Scientific Research Institute (ASRI) at the University of Illinois at Chicago is critical to achieving Illinois Board of Higher Education goals relating to access, diversity, and quality. ASRI programs is an innovative effort by ASRI Board of Trustees to better address pressing needs for underrepresented minority scientists and medical investigators throughout the State of Illinois and the world, public policy challenges associated with growing and ethnic diversity, minority disparities among professional counterpart within the academic itself, the Chicago metropolitan area, the state of Illinois and beyond. Despite reductions in government and state funding, ASRI programs and it impact have grown over the past three years to better meet the needs of young African students, African Latinos and other historically underrepresented groups of color. ASRI has attracted external funding in the past that has helped the “Institute” to better serve the citizens of Illinois while also increasing its visibility on UIC campus, in the community and at the national level.

Since its initial incorporation in 1999 and its approval in 2004 as a 501 (c) 3, ASRI has become central located on the UIC campus for promoting, coordinating and conducting early African research on a range of, cultural and public policy issues in both historical and contemporary rural/urban contexts. Along with the Great Cities Institute unit, “INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH ON RACE AND PUBLIC POLICY” (IRRPP) has become a critical resource as ASRI seeks to become the nation's leading public/private research institute striving to achieve the land-grant mission in a rural and urban setting. This new independent institute is based at the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs (CUPPA), as a host of the IRRPP, serves as a incubator facility to ASRI expanding company operations. ASRI works very closely with a variety of UIC academic units to promote policy-relevant, multidisciplinary, collaborative research among scholars across campus.

The central goal of producing basic and applied research is complemented by related education initiatives to enhance "academic excellence" and a range of service activities with both "rural" "urban" and "policy" relevance. These three major goals - of research, education and service - provide the foundation for the institute-based research projects, research training and service activities as well as strategic internal and external partnerships. Internal partnerships between IRRPP and various UIC colleges, departments and programs build on unique institutional strengths to enhance capacity and interdisciplinary synergy. Campus partnerships also promote strategic research networks, working groups, proposal writing teams and collaborative projects. External partnerships further expand funding prospects and opportunities for policy-relevant public service to the citizens of Illinois and beyond.

Nine core priority areas guide the development of interdisciplinary research programs, curricula innovation and policy-related outreach and public service activities:

POLICY-RELEVANT SCHOLARSHIP ON RACE AND BIOMOLECULAR ETHNIC DIVERSITY

ENGAGED RESEARCH ON PRESSING RACE AND PUBLIC POLICY ISSUE

- Race, Empowerment and Nation Policy acquiring Cultural Ownership
- Community Cultural Diversity and historical Cultural Economic Development
- Race, Attitudes and Public Policy Guidelines on ethical for Bio-historical Research
- Race, Education, and Cultural Heritages resources for Human Development
- Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Bio-Health technologies clinical information systems as well imaging applications for training Medical investigators.
- Policy and Social Justice implications on Ethical, Legal, guidelines of cultural resources and the preservation of descendent rights and values.

Within each priority area ASRI directors have begun to formalize strategic partnerships with both UIC instructional units and partners outside the institute. These strategic partnerships function to: (1) expand the quantity, quality and relevance of research on pressing public policy issues important to the African communities; (2) promote capacity building within various institute’s academic units and external partners to achieve even greater levels of excellence; and (3) mobilize a growing network of UIC campus administrators, faculty, postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, undergraduates, and external partners in a collective effort to better achieve the institute's mission, goals and objectives. The basic strategy is to leverage core ASRI resources to produce measurable outcomes by:

• Increasing external funding for policy-relevant research on [ancient] racial/ethnic disparities
• Increasing related scholarly productivity and interdisciplinary collaboration with AFFLITATES.
• Building ASRI/UIC campus-wide research capacity to address complex diversity challenges
• Coordinating multi-ethnic exchanges in research, education and service activities
• Promoting the development of underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities at the undergraduate, graduate,postdoctoral levels
• Bridging research with public service, external outreach, and community engagement

The institute's core facilities are located in UIC/CUPPA Hall and include offices for administrative staff, and research project staff including a research support laboratory and a multi-media laboratory. The research support laboratory contains IBM compatible desktop computers equipped with a variety of data analysis software, including SPSS, SAS, STATA, HLM, LISREL, and Atlas Ti to support both quantitative and qualitative research. All lab computers have advanced Pentium processors and are connected to the university's network servers. The media support laboratory contains IBM compatible computers that support multimedia work, scanners, a digital camcorder and other equipment. A variety of geographic information systems software is also available through UIC/CUPPA technical support. No additional library resources are required since institute's researchers are drawn from existing disciplinary fields.

The institute's core staff includes the Director, Assistant Director for Research and Assistant Director for Operations. Through internal partnerships, ASRI also maintains collaborative arrangements with other Chicago area campus units that support the key leadership roles played by Faculty Affiliates and a Strategic Policy Analyst. Both undergraduate and graduate student trainees provide administrative support and gain valuable research and leadership training through involvement in a range of basic and applied research projects. In addition, institute affiliates from outside the university also support ASRI initiatives through external partnerships with other educational institutions, local agencies and community-based organizations, state government departments as well as national and international organizations.

The establishment of ASRI has begun to pay off in increasing numbers of pending scholarly publications by staff and student trainees, externally funded projects and a range of innovative education and service activities. Because of ASRI, research at UIC on [ancient] race, ethnic and public policy issues has expanded and become better organized around a coherent set of core priority areas. More coherent programs of research provide a solid foundation for ASRI to continue to play a critical role in the institute's ongoing efforts to improve its standing in comparison to other Research I and Committee on Institutional Cooperation universities. Equally important, ASRI increasingly demonstrates that the institute is making visible progress toward its commitment to access, equity, and opportunity for underrepresented people of color within a racially, ethnically and culturally diversifying city, state, nation and world.

For more information, please contact us at (312) 355-4309 or e-mail jihadm@uic.edu.

| © copyright 2005 ASRI. All rights reserved. |