About

Who We Are

RIGS is a faculty-driven initiative that is a fluid network of scholars based at Montclair State University. Hailing from a variety of disciplines and fields.

What We Do

The mission of RIGS is to support a vibrant and synergistic community of scholars who traverse disciplinary and geographical boundaries. It facilitates collaboration and advances innovative, critical scholarship, advocacy, and practice. RIGS faculty support includes providing networking opportunities that may lead to teaching, publishing, and grant collaborations as well exchanges of work-in-progress (WIP) for feedback. Activities that showcase faculty in an exchange of ideas include but are not limited to: talks, roundtables/panels, workshops, book launches, and film screenings that engage with local, national and international issues and media and that strive to tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our time. We also offer curated, crowdsourced educational resources for classroom instruction and to support broader efforts of public knowledge dissemination.

History

RIGS was created by a group of Montclair faculty with a shared interest in exploring global and interdisciplinary issues through the lens of scholarly research. In its early phase, it functioned informally, centered around seminar-style work-in-progress meetings and discussions. The initiative was formally co-founded and launched by Arnaud Kurze and Kate Temony in 2020, when it gained a website, a more structured program, and formalized activities. Both Kurze and Temony also co-chaired the program coordination responsibilities during this initial period.

Goals

With our research, programming, and collaborations, we aim to:

provide opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations, research support, and resource sharing;
highlight the global interconnectedness and impact of faculty scholarship; and
showcase the University’s expertise and engagement through scholarly achievements, research, events, and activities.

We invite you to join us in exploring the many under-told narratives of intersections among social, political, economic, cultural, racial and gender-related phenomena from a global perspective.

Leadership

RIGS is governed by a three-member Leadership Council. Each member serves a three-year term, with elections held annually to ensure staggered rotation. Every year, one new member is elected to replace the outgoing member, and reappointment for an additional term is possible.

Leadership roles are assigned according to tenure within the council:

Deputy Coordinator: First-year member (incoming).
Acting Coordinator: Second-year member.
Outgoing Coordinator: Third-year member, completing their term.

Council Members

Minji Lee

Assistant Professor, Religion

Email: leemin@montclair.edu
Location: Dickson Hall, 353

Sangeeta Parashar

Chairperson, Sociology

Phone: 973-655-7168
Email: parashars@montclair.edu
Location: Dickson Hall, 310

Timothy Gorman

Associate Professor, Sociology

Email: gormant@montclair.edu
Location: Dickson Hall

Steering Committee

The RIGS Steering Committee, composed of diverse members, serves as an advisory body that meets regularly with leadership to provide guidance on programming, funding, collaboration, and strategic direction.