SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR
HUMAN RELATIONS STUDIES
Promoting understanding and cooperation among those of
different racial, ethnic, religious, and economic backgrounds.
The Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies is a university-based human relations and social justice organization that serves as a catalyst for promoting equity and human rights through education, research, advocacy, and collaboration for both university communities and society at large, transforming people and institutions to ensure opportunities for all.
Promoting Understanding and Cooperation
The Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies (SWCHRS) brings together businesses, education professionals, the media, as well as government, labor, and community-based agencies and organizations to help create equal opportunities in various areas of society.
IN MEMORIAM – LONGTIME SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR HUMAN RELATIONS STUDIES MEMBER RICHARD HILBERT
Richard Hilbert, professor emeritus of sociology and longtime member of the Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies Executive Committee at the University of Oklahoma, died Sunday, Aug. 22, at his home in Norman. He was 97.
Hilbert was born Dec. 19, 1923, in Reading, Pennsylvania, to Dorothy Heber Hilbert and Arthur Hilbert. He graduated from Reading High School in 1941. He spent time as a jazz musician before being drafted into the armed forces in 1943. He spent three years as a non-commissioned officer in the Army Medical Corps and began playing drums regularly.
In 1946, after leaving the Army, he moved to New York City, where he continued playing drums in jazz bands, including the Red Rodney combo. In 1949, he began taking college courses that eventually led to a doctorate degree and life as a sociology professor.
Hilbert joined the OU faculty in 1964 as chairman of the sociology department. His subject areas were deviance and social control, the criminal justice system, the sociology of religion and general theory. Before coming to OU, he taught at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania.
He was involved with the Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies, a program of OU Outreach, serving as a member of the executive committee from 1964 until his death. For 30 of those years, he was chairman.
SWCHRS is rooted in historical value and leadership in social justice on issues of race, ethnicity, sovereign identities, nationality, migration, class, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, size, and all other diversity domains of human relations.
SWCHRS programs extend beyond schools to intergroup relations training for elected officials, American Indians, journalists and editors, pastors and counselors, law enforcement agencies, and others concerned with human rights.
SWCHRS ACTIVITIES
The range of the center's activities fall into the four major categories of Education, Research, Public Service, and Consultation.
RESOURCES FOR INTERCULTURAL WORK
The staff and partners of the SWCHRS have the training and expertise to serve as consultant or facilitator on a variety of issues.
SWCHRS WORKSHOPS
Multicultural Leadership - Perspective Taking and Intercultural/Interracial Conflict Management - Intercultural Communication - Intercultural/Intergroup Decision-Making Skills
