Acknowledgements

This project is more a collective undertaking than an individual one. It took shape through the generosity, feedback, and example of many people and communities across CUNY, and it carries a collective vision — of racial equity, justice, and possibility — that none of us builds alone.

The Making of Race was developed through the Open Education & Publishing Institute (OEPI) Summer 2026, supported by grants from the CUNY Office of Library Services and administered by the Teaching and Learning Center and GC Digital Initiatives at the CUNY Graduate Center. I am grateful to Laurie Hurson, Assistant Director of Open Education at the Teaching and Learning Center, and Robin Miller, Open Educational Technologist at GC Digital Initiatives, for their guidance throughout the institute.

My thanks to the summer 2026 OEPI cohort for their feedback, ideas, brainstorming, and company. The workshops at the start of the summer were formative for revising and developing this project. Learning Manifold is no small task, and I learned a great deal from peers building projects on Manifold and the CUNY Academic Commons. I am especially grateful to the Manifold Graduate Fellows who showcased their own work and shared candid advice on best practices — Herline Honorat and Cortnie Belser — whose examples were a real inspiration. Herline showcased her course website on the CUNY Academic Commons and addressed the necessity of fostering community building throughout the semester rather than as a one-time exercise. Cortnie presented intentional and interactive design thinking focused on archives, memories, and imaginations through her breathtaking project “Fire!!: The Centennial Anniversary of the 1926 Harlem Renaissance Literary Magazine” on CUNY Manifold. Additionally, Black Diasporic Visions: (De) Constructing Modes of Power, a CUNY Manifold project led by Javiela Evangelista and Carla Shedd, not only drew my interest to CUNY Manifold in the first place but continues to serve as a model for the development of my own project.

Most of all, this project grew out of teaching. Since Fall 2024 I have taught Sociology 250: Racial and Ethnic Communities in the United States at Lehman College, CUNY, and the students in that course — together with colleagues in the Lehman Department of Sociology — shaped it more than they may realize. Their questions, feedback, and insight helped me see the possibility of turning the course into an open educational resource. I am especially grateful to the students who have generously shared their own work as part of this project. Their trust and contributions are at the heart of what makes it a shared endeavor.

Several CUNY programs and communities stood out along the way: the Teaching and Learning Center and GC Digital Initiatives at the Graduate Center; the Open Knowledge Fellowship at the Mina Rees Library, where an earlier zero-cost version of the syllabus first took shape; and the Writing Across the Curriculum program at Lehman College, which reshaped how writing sits at the center of the assignments. I am grateful for these opportunities and for the ongoing conversations they made possible.

To everyone named here, and to the many more who helped in ways large and small: thank you. This is, in the end, a shared vision of what teaching and learning about race might be on the horizon.