Program begins at 6:00 PM EDT

ABOUT THE LECTURE

National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman‘s poem "The Hill We Climb"—among the most powerful moments of the 2021 Presidential Inauguration—inspired the central inquiry of this year‘s Brown Lecture: Why are we still climbing the hill of educational equity 67 years after the U.S. Supreme Court‘s landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education? In her lecture, Lori Patton Davis challenges dominant narratives surrounding Brown and introduces perspectives that might help account for our lack of progress—perspectives that typically are overlooked or erased in wider Brown discourses. Her scholarly analysis contributes a robust understanding of Brown and its historical and contemporary meanings in the sociopolitical contexts of racism and White supremacy.

Patton Davis considers pressing questions: How can study of the circumstances that have intensified the COVID-19 pandemic fuel collective understanding of racial inequities and intersectional injustices in education? How might a critical race lens guide educators, policymakers, and researchers toward a more progressive realization of the promises of Brown? What would it take for education researchers, the majority of whom are situated in postsecondary settings, to engage in activism modeled after the work of communities still fighting for the racial and educational equity envisioned in Brown?

This webinar will broadcast live on ZOOM.
ASL interpretation and captioning will be provided.
Please register in advance.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

A highly respected and accomplished researcher, Patton Davis is the co-author and co-editor of several important books on college student development and the author of numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and other academic publications appearing in highly regarded venues such as the American Educational Research Journal, the Journal of Higher Education, Urban Education, and the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Her research has been cited in multiple publications and funded by grants from the Spencer Foundation, the Lumina Foundation, the American Psychological Foundation, and numerous other organizations. 

ABOUT THE MODERATOR AND COMMENTATORS

Walter R. Allen is Allan Murray Cartter Professor in Higher Education in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also Distinguished Professor of Education, Sociology, and African American Studies. Allen directs CHOICES, a longitudinal study of college attendance among African Americans and Latinos in California, and is co-investigator for “Educational Diversity in U.S. Law Schools,” a study of race, ethnicity, teaching and learning in legal education. Allen’s research interests include higher education, race and ethnicity, family patterns and social inequality. He has been a consultant to courts, communities, business and government. Allen has authored or coauthored 150 publications and has appeared widely in the news media, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, CBS 60 Minutes, and NBC Nightly News.

Kayla C. Elliott is director of higher education policy at The Education Trust, where she leads the team and agenda on promoting access, accountability, and affordability for students of color and students from low-income backgrounds. Before taking on a leadership role, Kayla was a policy analyst on the team, focusing on state and federal accountability policies such as student protections, resource equity, and outcomes-based funding. Elliott has worked on P-20 education issues for more than a decade. Prior to Ed Trust, Kayla held various roles at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), where she earned a Ph.D. in higher education leadership. She has worked with a range of nonprofit education organizations, including Lumina Foundation, the Southern Education Foundation, and Teach For America.

ABOUT AERA LEADERSHIP

Adam Harris​ is a staff writer at the Atlantic where he has covered education and national politics since 2018. He is the author of The State Must Provide, a narrative history of racial inequality in higher education. Previously, Harris served as a reporter at the Chronicle of Higher Education, where he covered federal education policy and historically black colleges and universities. In 2021, he was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and was a National Fellow at New America. Harris’s writing has appeared in BBC, B/R Mag, EBONY Magazine, and ProPublica.

AERA 2021-22 President Na’ilah Suad Nasir is the sixth president of the Spencer Foundation. Prior to her appointment at Spencer in 2017, she served as the vice-chancellor of equity and inclusion at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was professor and Birgeneau Chair in Educational Disparities. Nasir’s research focuses on issues of race, culture, and learning. Her numerous articles have appeared in the American Educational Research Journal, Teachers College Record, Educational Researcher, and Phi Delta Kappan, among others. Her books include Racialized Identities: Race and Achievement Among African-American Youth (2011); Mathematics for Equity: A Framework for Successful Practice (2014); and We Dare Say Love: Supporting Achievement in the Educational Life of Black Boys (2018).

Felice J. Levine is executive director of the American Educational Research Association, where she champions the advancement of knowledge and use of sound research to guide policy and practice. Her areas of expertise include science policy, research ethics, data access and sharing, and the scientific and academic workforce. Her current projects include the development of a research data hub to connect data resources, foster new scholarly networks, and build research capacity in STEM education; an initiative to examine the impact of and foster academic support for open science products; and a study of the impact of COVID-19 on doctoral students and early-career researchers. Levine chairs the Board of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, co-chairs the Societies Consortium on Sexual Harassment in STEMM, and is on the Board of the Consortium of Social Science Associations. Levine is also a Past President of the Law and Society Association and recent Past President of the World Education Research Association.

WITH APPRECIATION TO FRIENDS OF THE BROWN LECTURE