Social Science Evidence on Benefits of Diversity
Social Science Evidence on Benefits of Diversity
 
April 2, 2012
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Two presidential sessions at the 2012 AERA Annual Meeting will explore the role of research and its applications in current policy and legal actions involving social justice issues. The sessions will focus on the suspension of the Mexican American Studies curriculum in Tucson, Arizona, and the constitutionality of the University of Texas admissions program in the upcoming Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin.

“The Tucson 2011 Suspension of the Mexican American Studies Program,” chaired by AERA President Arnetha F. Ball and Social Justice Action Committee chair Richard P. Duran, will explore the research supporting the teaching of ethnic studies curricula. Based on this research, the AERA Council released two resolutions in February urging the reinstatement of the suspended Mexican American Studies program in Tucson and the repeal of legislation enacted by the Arizona legislature that limited the teaching of ethnic studies in the state. The session will be held Monday, April 16, at 2:15 p.m. in the Vancouver Convention Centre, First Level, West Room 114 & 115.

“From Grutter v. Bollinger to Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin” will focus on social science research highlighting the benefits of diversity in educational settings, a basis for the Supreme Court’s Grutter decision, which will be challenged in Fisher in the Court’s current term. At issue is the undergraduate admissions program at UT-Austin, which includes race as one of several criteria considered in the evaluation of applicants. The panel for this session, chaired by AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine, will look at the arguments centered in social science research cited in the Supreme Court decision affirming the use of race in admissions at the University of Michigan Law School in Grutter and their potential application in Fisher. The session will be held Monday, April 16, at 12:25 p.m. at the Vancouver Convention Centre, First Level, West Room 118–120.