Learn About our Work

A New Chapter at Boyd Law

In 2025, IRISE joined Boyd School of Law, bringing its expertise, methodology, and commitment to a new region with its own unique challenges and opportunities. Nevada's rapidly growing and increasingly diverse population, its significant Native American communities, its role as a destination for immigrants from around the world, and its position at the forefront of environmental and economic change in the West all create urgent needs for the kind of work IRISE does.

By establishing IRISE within a law school, we recognize the central role that legal systems, policies, and institutions play in both creating and potentially dismantling inequality. Boyd Law's commitment to public service, its strong connections to Nevada's legal and policy communities, and its diverse student body make it an ideal home for IRISE's continued evolution.

Understanding (In)Equality

The parentheses in our name (In)Equality represent something fundamental about how we approach our work. The parentheses signal that we study both equality and inequality as a complex system, understanding that inequality is not simply the absence of equality but an active force that must be interrogated and challenged.

This poetic construct acknowledges that something can be present even when we cannot immediately see or hear it. Infrastructure, systems, and forces that shape our lives are often invisible, taken for granted until their absence reveals profound disparities. Cell phone coverage, clean water, quality schools, safe neighborhoods, access to healthcare, and opportunities for advancement are invisible to those who have always had them, but their absence creates stark boundaries that define who is equal and who is not.

Our work makes visible these invisible systems. We examine the absences, the gaps, the inequities that reveal who is valued and who is marginalized. And we work to change the conditions that create and sustain inequality.

Our Mission & Core Values

Mission Statement: IRISE facilitates cutting-edge interdisciplinary research, scholarship, and creative works promoting equality and equity in historically underrepresented communities on issues of inequality, social justice, and inclusivity.

Why "IRISE"?

Our name serves multiple purposes. The acronym IRISE stands for Interdisciplinary Research Incubator for the Study of (In)Equality. But the word "rise" itself carries meaning; it suggests uplift, resistance, and emergence. It evokes the idea of communities and individuals rising up to challenge injustice, rising above systems designed to keep them down, and the rise of a more equitable future.

What Makes IRISE Different

Not Just Research, But Community Partnership 

Many research institutes study inequality from a distance. IRISE works with communities, not just on communities. Our community partners help shape research questions, participate in data collection and analysis, and determine how findings should be used.

Not Just Description, But Solutions 

While documenting inequality is important, IRISE focuses on actionable research—work that can inform policy change, support litigation, strengthen advocacy campaigns, and empower communities to challenge unjust systems.

Not Just Academic, But Public 

Our work is designed to be accessible beyond the academy. We communicate findings through multiple formats—reports, toolkits, podcasts, multimedia projects, and public presentations—to reach the audiences who can use the research to create change.

Not Just Interdisciplinary, But Transdisciplinary 

We don't just bring together different academic disciplines; we also bridge the gap between academic knowledge and community knowledge, recognizing that both are essential to understanding and addressing inequality

Research Methodology: How We Work

Community-Engaged Research: IRISE practices community-engaged research, which means community partners are involved throughout the research process—from identifying research questions to interpreting findings to determining how results should be used. We believe those most affected by inequity should have a voice in how it is studied and addressed.

Mixed Methods: We use both qualitative and quantitative research methods, recognizing that numbers and narratives both tell important stories. Our work includes policy analysis, legal research, oral history, surveys, focus groups, spatial analysis, archival research, and ethnography.

Action-Oriented: Every research project should answer the question: "So what?" We focus on research that can inform policy change, support advocacy and organizing, provide evidence for litigation, educate the public, or empower communities to challenge injustice.

Historically Grounded: Present-day inequality has deep historical roots. Our research traces how past policies, practices, and decisions created current conditions, helping us understand how to create different futures.

Interdisciplinary: Inequality is too complex for any single discipline to fully understand. IRISE brings together scholars from law, sociology, history, education, public health, geography, anthropology, and other fields to provide a comprehensive analysis.

Research Support for Students

IRISE provides opportunities for students to engage in meaningful research on issues of racial justice and equity. We offer:

• Research Assistantships: Paid positions working on IRISE research projects
• Research Fellowships: Competitive fellowships for students conducting their own research
• Independent Study: Faculty supervision for student-initiated research projects
• Thesis/Dissertation Support: Methodological and conceptual support for graduate research
• Research Training: Workshops on community-engaged research methods, qualitative and quantitative analysis, and research ethics

Students from law, social sciences, public policy, education, public health, and other disciplines are encouraged to get involved with IRISE research.

Past Impact: IRISE at Denver

While IRISE is in a new location, we build on a decade of impactful research at the University of Denver. Examples of past projects that demonstrate IRISE's approach include:

The Color of Water in Colorado 

Research on water justice and how communities of color have been disproportionately affected by water policy, contamination, and infrastructure decisions.

Jobs With Justice Evaluation 

Assessment of targeted hiring agreements in the I-70 corridor construction project to evaluate whether such programs effectively bring women and minorities into the workforce.

This is My Denver Project 

with North High School students using spoken word poetry and short documentaries to tell stories about gentrification and community change.

Social Movement Support Lab

Partnership with grassroots organizations working to address mass criminalization, the school-to-prison pipeline, and police accountability.

Documenting the Past, Fostering the Future 

NEH-funded curriculum development project centering youth voices in the Chicano movement and ongoing struggles for racial justice.

Documenting The Past Fostering The Future Project

Documenting the Past, Fostering the Future (DPFF) is a project that highlights the central role young people have played in the fight for racial equity, human rights, and social justice in the Rocky Mountain West and beyond. Targeting politically engaged Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences, it connects historical struggles from segregated Denver neighborhoods to contested ranges in Wyoming and New Mexico with the challenges today's youth face, including climate change, gun violence, and income inequality. Through curriculum, podcasts, multimedia, and community engagement, DPFF draws on racial and ethnic studies scholarship to explore who has power, who must fight for freedom, and how young people have served as catalysts for justice throughout American history.

Learn more here!

The Color of Water

This project works to engage government agencies, institutions of higher education on the topic, and communities of color in the realm of water and climate justice.  Built upon Dr. Tom I. Romero, II’s path breaking article, The Color of Water: Observations of a Brown Buffalo on Water Law and Policy in Ten Stanzas , the project is building new pathways for local and state government agencies to partner with, collaborate on, and readily as well as meaningfully share data, develop research questions, and disseminate information with Colorado's under-served communities on issues of water.