Centers

Founded in 1986, the Center for Cultural Analysis is Rutgers University’s hub for interdisciplinary research and collaboration in the humanities and social sciences.  A member of the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes, the CCA supports an annual research seminar and a series of working groups that explore emerging areas of inquiry. 

The Rutgers Writing Program provides instruction to over 17,000 undergraduate students yearly. We offer required writing classes and advanced courses in Business & Technical Writing, all of which prepare students to succeed throughout their academic careers at Rutgers and beyond. To assist students in developing the critical thinking and writing skills most highly valued in the university, the Writing Program has developed a curriculum centered on student writing.

IRW fosters feminist scholarship, activism, and community building. Our work incorporates critical, interdisciplinary perspectives on gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, disability, class, and nation. Our programs include a seminar, distinguished lecture series, and undergraduate learning community. We publish the online journal Rejoinder and the Rutgers University Press Feminist Bookshelf series. We also run the Rutgers Public Engagement Project, facilitate working groups, and host visiting scholars from around the world.

The Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival at Rutgers University, which is celebrating its 40th Anniversary in 2021, showcases the best in independent film by featuring premiere screenings, special guest appearances by film directors, screenwriters, and cast/crew.

Founded in 1996 by Distinguished Professor Emeritus Howard McGary, and now run by Henry Rutgers Professor Derrick Darby, this conference annually brings 15-20 undergraduates from underrepresented groups to Rutgers New Brunswick.  They engage in a week of intensive philosophy study with members of the Rutgers Department of Philosophy, as well as leading philosophers from elsewhere around the world.  Many alums go on to Ph.D. programs in philosophy.

Raritan is a journal of wide-ranging inquiry publishing leading voices on history, literature, politics, and the arts. Founded in 1981 and now edited by Jackson Lears, BOG Distinguished Professor of History, Raritan offers writers and readers the opportunity for sustained reflection and aesthetic pleasure, uncluttered by academic jargon.

The Rutgers British Studies Center (RBSC) supports a rich variety of programming—lectures, conferences, seminars, workshops, and roundtables—dedicated to the interdisciplinary analysis of British history and culture. Chronologically, we aim to investigate conventional boundaries between tradition and modernity, feudalism and capitalism, the imperial and the post-imperial, the neo-classical and the post-romantic, and the modern and the post-modern.

The Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis (RCHA) was founded in 1988 by the Rutgers Department of History as a center dedicated to interdisciplinary research, teaching and outreach. Each year, the Center welcomes several visiting senior and postdoctoral fellows, who join Rutgers faculty and graduate students in weekly seminar discussions and annual conferences around the project theme. In addition to its theme-driven projects, the Center also hosts an ongoing seminar and lecture series in Black Atlantic History.

The Rutgers Center for the Philosophy of Religion fosters the study of philosophical questions that arise within religious doctrine and practice.  The Center hosts post-doctoral fellows and senior fellows.  Activities include a weekly reading group, a lecture series, workshops, and conferences.

This one-week summer program administered by the English department is designed for advanced college students and recent graduates whose cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds may contribute to diversity in the fields of English and American literary studies.

Rutgers English Language Institute (RELI) is a global community that supports undergraduate and graduate scholars who use English as an additional language. RELI collaborates with partnering offices such as Rutgers Global and the Language Engagement Project to create translingual and global programming at Rutgers- New Brunswick.

Rutgers Oral History Archives (ROHA) preserves the life narratives of Rutgers alumni and New Jersey residents who served during times of conflict. ROHA interviews people with a story to tell about New Jersey's rich social and cultural history as well as those who helped shape the history of Rutgers University. ROHA's digital archive features 1,160 life course oral history interviews and over 32,000 pages of fully text-searchable transcripts. All content is available to students, teachers, and scholars free of charge for educational purposes.

The Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life is committed to academic excellence and fostering scholarly exchange, and connects the university with the community through its public lectures, Jewish Film Festival, Jewish communal initiatives, cultural events, and teacher training.

The Center sponsors visiting scholars and offers a wide range of programs for students and seminars for faculty.  The activities of the Herbert and Leonard Littman Families Holocaust Resource Center advance the Bildner Center's commitment to reduce prejudice and promote inter-group understanding.

The Language Center serves the faculty and students of SAS language departments via training and teaching programs, support for research, and language entrepreneurship. The Center focuses on five areas of activity: coordination, pedagogical support, MAT programs (World Languages Institute), entrepreneurial and outreach activities, and teaching of otherwise unavailable languages. 

The Thomas A. Edison Papers makes the documentary legacy of America’s most prolific inventor and innovator accessible through selective, annotated digital image and book editions. In addition, we disseminate our research through journal and book publications, conference papers, information on our website, media appearances, public lectures, museum collaborations, and educational programs.

Writers House is an undergraduate learning community at Rutgers University-New Brunswick that provides a gateway to the experience of creativity and serves as a laboratory for developing expression in all the media of the twenty-first century. The goal of Writers House is to give students direct access to writing’s constructive and life-changing powers for personal and social good.