Mixed Race Studies

Mixed Race Studies (www.MixedRaceStudies.org) is a non-commercial website that provides the most comprehensive and robust gateway to interdisciplinary English language scholarship about the relevant issues surrounding multiracialism. This site has been called by a preeminent scholar, “the most comprehensive and objective clearinghouse for scholarly publications related to critical mixed-race theory” and by an up and coming scholar, “probably the singularly most valuable tool in my work.”

At present, MixedRaceStudies.org contains 12,000 posts which consists of links to 7,000+ articles; 1,500+ books; nearly 600 dissertation, papers and reports; 700+ multimedia items; over 600 excerpts and quotes, over 100 course offerings; etc. Currently, MixedRaceStudies.org receives over 3,000 visitors each day and during a monthly period, over 59,000 unique visitors and over 1.5 million page views.

Creator and Founder Steven Riley has been an Information Technology professional for over 30 years in the D.C. area and is currently Director of Database Development and Design at a trade association in Washington D.C.  His areas of expertise are application programming, database and website development. When he is not developing software applications, he spends his time at home in Silver Spring, Maryland with his artist wife Julia of 33 years, working on his photography and reading books on history and sociology. Steve Riley’s recent activities within the field, include:

Articles/Article Mentions

• Donnella, Leah, “All Mixed Up: What Do We Call People Of Multiple Backgrounds?,” Code Switch: National Public Radio, August 25, 2016.
• Lee, Jee Yoon, “Feature: Five Qs with Sharon H. Chang,” Writing like an Asian: Thoughts on writing, composition, and issues of identity, February 26, 2016.
• Williams, September, “BLACK AND WHITE vs BLACK OR WHITE: Bioethics and Mixed Race Families,” September Williams’ Bioethics Screen Reflections: Film, Television, and Media Critiques Relevant to Bioethics, March 1, 2015.
• Chang, Sharon, “Why isn’t College for Learning About Mixed-Race Identities?,” Racism Review, March 8, 2014.
• Spencer, Rainier, “‘Only the News They Want to Print’: Mainstream Media and Critical Mixed-Race Studies,” Journal of Critical Mixed Race Studies, Volume 1, Number 1, (January 30, 2014). page 176.
• Robinson, Glenn C. and Steven F. Riley, “The Impact of Internet Publishing and Online Communications on Mixed-Race Discourses,” The Asian American Literary Review, (Special Issue on Mixed Race, Volume 4, Issue, Fall 2013), Mixed Race is an Inbox: pages 127-136.
• Riley, Steven F., “The Truth About Loving v. Virginia and Why it Matters,” MixedRaceStudies.org, June 12, 2013.
• Riley, Steven F., “According to Our Hearts: Lessons Lost and Learned from the Cheerios Commercial Controversy,” MixedRaceStudies.org, June 6, 2013.
• Riley, Steven F. “A Conversation with Eric Hamako,” MixedRaceStudies.org, January 23, 2013.
• Patrice Peck, “Biracial versus black: Thought leaders weigh in on the meaning of President Obama’s biracial heritage,” NBC News: TheGrio, November 19, 2012.
• Riley, Steven F., “An Evening with Our New Poet Laureate,” MixedRaceStudies.org, September 16, 2012.
• Riley, Steven F., “What is the Black German Experience? A Review of the Black German Cultural Society of New Jersey 2nd Annual Convention,” MixedRaceStudies.org, August 17, 2012.
• Riley, Steven F., “As Racist as We Wish to Be: Project RACE, “The Talk”, Obama and the Fear of Blackness,” MixedRaceStudies.org, April 10, 2012
• “Mixed Race Studies with Steve Riley,” Is That Your Child? with host Michelle McCrary, January 20, 2012.
• Riley, Steven F., “The Multiracial Identity Movement: Countless Ways to Misunderstand Race,” MixedRaceStuides.org, November 4, 2011.
• Riley, Steven F., “Demographic Demagoguery: Gregory Rodriguez’s views on race and the census just don’t add up,” MixedRaceStuides.org, April 8, 2011.
• Riley, Steven F., “The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White [Book Review],” MixedRaceStudies.org, February 28, 2011.
• Riley, Steven F., “I’m Biracial… Not Black Damn It-part 2? Pass on this one (Movie Review),” July 1, 2010.

Interviews

• Episode 4 (With special guest, Steven F. Riley, founder of MixedRaceStudies.org!), Shade Podcast: UK culture and news podcast focused on the mixed race experience, February 15, 2019.
• “Critical Mixed Race Studies w Steven F. Riley,” iMiXWHATiLiKE!, with host Professor Jared A. Ball, March 5, 2017.
• “Studying multiracialism and critical mixed race studies with Steven Riley, Ep. 42,” Multiracial Family Man, with host Alex Barnett, December 6, 2015.
• “Steve Riley Co-hosts a Recap of Some Important Discussions,” Mixed Race Radio (BlogTalk Radio), with host Tiffany Rae Reid, August 21, 2013.
• “Mixed Race Studies with Steven Riley,” Research at the National Archives & Beyond (BlogTalk Radio), with host Natonne Kemp, July 25, 2013.
• “Meet Steve Riley—Creator of Mixed Race Studies,” Mixed Race Radio (BlogTalk Radio), with host Tiffany Rae Reid, July 18, 2012.
• “Interview with MOsley WOtta frontman/poet Jason Graham,” Mixed Chicks Chat, with host Jennifer Frappier and guest co-host Steven F. Riley, February 22, 2012.
• “Episode 159 with Steven F. Riley,” Mixed Chicks Chat (with host Fanshen Cox), June 23, 2010.
• “Episode 147 with Steven F. Riley,” Mixed Chicks Chat (with guest host Mike Peden), April 7, 2010.

Conference Presentations

• “Passing for a Scholar: A Personal Reflection on the Website MixedRaceStudies.org,” (panelist at the 2018 Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference, University of Maryland, College Park, March 1-3, 2018).
• “‘If should they not wake in the morning.’ The Real Meaning of Loving v. Virginia,” (panelist at the 2017 Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference, University of Southern California, February 27-28, 2017).
• “Researching and Publishing on Multiracial Topics,” National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education (NCORE), (Panelist, Washington, D.C., May 27, 2015). Forthcoming.
• “What to Expect When You’re Expecting: First-Time Authors on Book Publishing and CMRS,” (roundtable chair, Global Mixed Race: Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, November 13-15, 2014).
• “The Lived Experiences of Contemporary Mixed Race Couples in the U.S.,” (roundtable participant, Global Mixed Race: Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, November 13-15, 2014).
• “Beginnings and Transitions of Mixed Race People in North Carolina,” (panel chair, Global Mixed Race: Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, November 13-15, 2014).
• “One Big Mixed Race Classroom: New Models for Digital, Transnational, and Cross-Disciplinary Pedagogy,” (roundtable participant at the Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association, Washington, D.C., November 21-24, 2013).
• Riley, Steven F., “Barack, Blackness, Borders and Beyond: Exploring Obama’s Racial Identity Today as a Means of Transcending Race Tomorrow,” (paper delivered at the 2012 Critical Mixed Race Studies, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, November 1, 2012).
• Riley, Steven F., “Don’t Pass on Context: The Importance of Academic Discourses in Contemporary Discussions on the Multiracial Experience,” co-paneled with Dr. G. Reginald Daniel. (paper presented at the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival, Los Angeles, California, June 11, 2011).
• “Exploring the Mixed Experience in New Media,” (round table participant, inaugural Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, November 5, 2010).
• Riley, Steven F., “The Origins of MixedRaceStudies.org,” (paper read at the National Association for Ethnic Studies Conference, Washington, D.C., April 10, 2010.  Invited by Drs. Rainier Spencer, UNLV and Sue-Je Gage, Ithaca)

Talks/Lectures/Other Activities

• Panelist, “The Born Identity: Race & Identity in the Multiracial Community,” Districtly Speaking, Washington, D.C., January 29, 2015.
• Introducer for “3rd Annual: What Are You? – A Discussion about Mixed Heritage,” Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn, New York, November 9, 2013.
• Moderator for Q&A Session, “One Drop of Love: A Multimedia Solo Performance on Racial Identity by Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni at University of Maryland,” University of Maryland, March 29, 2013.
• “MixedRaceStudies.org” vendor table at the “Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival,” Los Angeles, California, June 16-17, 2012.
• “Sex, Love, Race: Miscegenation, Mixed Race and Interracial Relations,” (guest lecture, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, Professor Dr. Ulli K. Ryder, October 28, 2010).
• “Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival,” Attendee. Los Angeles, California, June 12-13, 2010.
• “Multiracial Identity” (World premier screening), (panelist Q&A session with director Brian Chinhema, Politics on Film Festival, Washington, D.C., May 5, 2010).

Citations/Mentions

• Hoyt, Carlos, The Arc of a Bad Idea: Understanding and Transcending Race, (London, New York: Oxford University Press, 2016),
• Hamako, Eric, “Improving Anti-Racist Education for Multiracial Students.” Ed.D. dissertation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2014. pages vi, 209, 285.
• Rocha, Zarine Lia, “Betwixt, Between and Beyond: Racial formation and “mixed race” identities in New Zealand and Singapore.” Ph.D. dissertation, National University of Singapore, 2013. page ii.
• Riepenhausen, Nadia, “I Call Myself What I like: Mixed Race Identity & Social Media.” Masters Thesis, University of Leicester, 2013. page 52.
• DiGiovanni, Fanshen, “One Drop of Love: Finding the Love in the One-drop Rule through Documentary Storytelling and Performance.” Masters Thesis, California State University, Los Angeles, 2013. Introduction.
• Advanced Praise for Blay, Yaba and Noelle Théard (dir. of photography), (1)ne Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race (Philadelphia: BLACKprint Press, 2013). Page iii and Back Cover.
• Mentioned in Pellegrini, Gino Michael, “Creating Multiracial Identites in the Work of Rebecca Walker and Kip Fulbeck: A Collective Critique of American Liberal Multiculturalism,” Multiethnic Literature in the United States (MELUS), Volume 38, Number 4 (Winter 2013): 1-20. Pages 17, 20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/melus/mlt053.
• Mentioned in Khanna, Nikki, “Teaching & Learning Guide for: Multiracial Americans: Racial Identity Choices and Implications for the Collection of Race Data,” Sociology Compass, (Volume 6, Issue 6, June 2012), pages 519-525. Page 519. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2012.00463.x.
• Mentioned in Daniel, G. Reginald, Machado de Assis: Multiracial Identity and the Brazilian Novelist, (University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012), xi.
• Mentioned in Spencer, Rainier, Reproducing Race: The Paradox of Generation Mix. (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Reinner Publishers, Inc., 2011), x.

Other Activities

• Advisor, Asian American Literary Review Mixed Race Initiative (Synchronous Teaching Program), 2013-2014.