Courtney Carter researches race in the context of organizational space. Her work explores the ongoing construction of race as a fundamental property of organizations. Looking at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Dr. Carter pays attention to the ways racial histories, ideologies, discourses and practices reproduce black institutional space.  She is currently working on a book about the racial politics within one HBCU, where university members wrestle with the significance of blackness for the university, resulting in multiple and competing ideas of what it means to be a 21^st century HBCU.

Dr. Carter has also written about the ways HBCUs respond to diversity pressures, and how their traditional mission shapes their approach to diversity practices. Other topics include diversity and neighborhood preferences, published in The DuBois Review, and the demands facing HBCU presidents, published in the Journal of Blacks Studies.