Established in 1998 at the University of Pennsylvania, the W.E.B. Du Bois Collective Research Institute is a multidisciplinary academic enterprise. Its members represent the twelve schools of the University of Pennsylvania and continue the tradition of "engaged scholarship" in the pursuit of urban issues and themes raised by W.E.B. Du Bois in his landmark study, "The Philadelphia Negro." The Institute serves as a vehicle for dialog and collaborative interdisciplinary research.