"Surrendered: Why Progressives are Losing the Biggest Battles in Education"
February 25 | Noon - 1:30 p.m.
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In this virtual talk, Dr. Kumashiro will discuss his new book "Surrendered: Why Progressives are Losing the Biggest Battles in Education." Teachers College Press describes the book as offering "a necessary intervention to help progressive educators and advocates take back public education as well as a different path forward for K–12 and higher education by showing readers how to establish a progressive agenda, employ language, and harness evidence more effectively."
Meet the Speaker
Kevin Kumashiro is an internationally recognized expert on educational policy, school reform, teacher preparation, and educational equity and social justice, with a wide-ranging list of accomplishments and awards as a scholar, educator, leader, and advocate. He is the former Dean of the School of Education at the University of San Francisco, and is the award-winning author or editor of ten books, including "Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning toward Social Justice," and "Bad Teacher!: How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture." His recent awards include the 2016 Social Justice in Education Award from the American Educational Research Association, and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters.
"Scholarly Work and Organizing at the Intersections"
March 25, 2021 | Noon - 1:30 p.m.
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Dr. Connie Wun and Pitt Education's Dr. Sabina Vaught will discuss community organizing, scholarship, and intersectionality. Dr. Wun will share her experiences writing and publishing about anti-Blackness, schools, and violence through an intersectional framework. Dr. Wun will also speak to the recent femicidal violence against Asian womxn in the U.S. Our school issued a response on the violence that, among other things, calls on us to engage in the work of witnessing, solidarity, and study.
Featured Video
- "Democracy Now" video: Stop Asian Hate: Connie Wun on Atlanta Spa Killings, Gender Violence & Spike in Anti-Asian Attacks
Meet the Speaker
Connie Wun, PhD is a co-founder of AAPI Women Lead. She also leads national research projects on race, gender and violence. Dr. Wun is a 2020 Soros Justice Fellow and has received numerous awards including National Science Foundation fellowship. Her research has been published in academic journals, anthologies and online platforms. She is also a former high school teacher, college educator, and sexual assault counselor.
"Liberated Territories: Pedagogy as Social Transformation"
April 1, 2021 | Noon - 1:30 p.m.
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Dr. Russell Rickford will discuss his book "We Are an African People: Independent Education, Black Power, and the Radical Imagination”. Tracing an arc of radical practices from the 1970s to today, Dr. Rickford will discuss grassroots efforts to put oppressed people in command of their lives. Registrants are asked to read the following chapter from his book: “The Maturation of Pan African Nationalism”.
Meet the Speaker
Russell Rickford is an associate professor of history at Cornell University. He specializes in African-American political culture after World War II, the Black Radical Tradition, and transnational social movements. His most recent book, "We Are an African People: Independent Education, Black Power, and the Radical Imagination," received the 2016 Hooks Institute National Book Award and the 2017 OAH Liberty Legacy Foundation Award.
Bonus Lunch & Learn!
"Black, Brown, Bruised: How Racialized STEM Education Stifles Innovation"
April 13 | Noon - 1:30 p.m.
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In collaboration with the NSF INCLUDES Alliance: The STEM PUSH Network, Dr. Ebony McGee will discuss her book "Black, Brown, Bruised: How Racialized STEM Education Stifles Innovation" which brings together more than ten years of research on high-achieving, underrepresented racially minoritized (URM) students and faculty in STEM fields. She will offer a deep appreciation of what it means to be a STEMer of color and academically successful in contexts where people of color are few and negative beliefs about our ability and motivation persist. She will explore questions such as these: How do some students manage to survive brutal academic climates, and what does it cost them? Why do schools continue to recruit URM people into disciplines whose climate regularly drives them away? How does excluding people of color from STEM disciplines limit innovation?
Meet the Speaker
As an associate professor of diversity and STEM education at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College, Dr. Ebony McGee investigates what it means to be racially marginalized while minoritized in the context of learning and achieving in STEM higher education and in the STEM professions. Education is her second career; she left a career in electrical engineering to earn a PhD in mathematics education from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Chicago, and a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship at Northwestern University. With funding from six NSF grants, Dr. McGee cofounded the Explorations in Diversifying Engineering Faculty Initiative or EDEFI. She also cofounded the Institute in Critical Quantitative and Mixed Methodologies Training for Underrepresented Scholars (ICQCM), which seeks to be a "go-to" institute for the development of quantitative and mixed-methods skillsets that challenge simplistic quantifications of race and marginalization. She is the lead editor of the recently published book "Diversifying STEM: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Race and Gender" (2019). Her research has been featured in multiple prominent media outlets.