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AERA Presidential Address
Friday, April 10,  5:45 pm to 7:15 pm
Concourse Hall, Los Angeles Convention Center, Level One

Speaker: Maisha T. Winn (Stanford University)

Learn from the wisdom and knowledge of AERA President Maisha T. Winn. The Presidential Address is an annual “can’t miss” event, where the state and future of the field are examined and attendees are inspired.

2026 AERA Distinguished Lecture

Speaker: Bryan Brayboy (Northwestern University)

Title: Re-memory, Genealogy, and Dreams for the Future

This lecture will draw on the history of attempted assimilation of Indigenous peoples through schooling to consider what lessons might be remembered to help move us toward a future that is rooted in individuals and communities being able to create futures of their own making. Covering four centuries of assimilatory projects, I ask: What lessons for a self-determined future might we draw from four hundred years of attempted erasure and absencing? And what will re-membering offer us in dreaming for the future?

2026 Awards Ceremony Luncheon
Thursday, April 9, 11:45 am to 1:45 pm
Concourse Hall, Los Angeles Convention Center, Level One

The Awards Ceremony Luncheon will be a highlight of the 2026 AERA Annual Meeting. AERA encourages Annual Meeting participants to add the luncheon to their registration and to help honor notable accomplishments and achievements, across career stages, in education research.

2026 AERA Annual Meeting Opening Plenary: Holding Fast to Histories, Holding Fast to Dreams
Wednesday, April 8, 5:45 pm to 7:15 pm
Concourse Hall, Los Angeles Convention Center, Level One

Participants: Daniel Gilbert Solorzano (University of California - Los Angeles), Jarvis R. Givens (Harvard University), Stacey J. Lee (University of Wisconsin–Madison), Veronica Terriquez (University of California - Los Angeles), Amanda R. Tachine (University of Oregon)
 

2026 Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture

Speaker: Bianca J. Baldridge (Harvard University)

Title: (Re)memory, Community-based Education, and ‘Youth Work’ as the Process of Futuring

In the 2026 Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture, Bianca J. Baldridge reflects on her community-engaged scholarship, her theoretical contributions to community-based education and critical youth work practice, and her empirical research with youth workers across the United States. Dr. Baldridge will demonstrate how youth workers teach to transgress—pushing beyond the boundaries of systems and paradoxes within the field as they co-envision possibilities in their work alongside youth. By elevating the role of educators working outside traditional school walls, she will urge the audience to rethink ‘schooling,’ expand our notions of who educators are, and support and invest in youth workers who make significant sacrifices to support our children. Using her current research with Black youth workers across the US, she connects contemporary youth work to a long tradition of resistance, emphasizing the knowledge carried from the past to confront present realities.

Dr. Baldrige’s talk will raise important questions, such as: in today’s social and political climate, what can we remember, recollect, and reassemble about the constellation of educational and learning environments that can transform young people's lives? How can we, as education researchers, learn from history to guide our approach in honoring the wisdom and agency within communities, including all educators and youth? How can we envision community-based education and youth work as a process of futuring and world-building toward educational justice?  A joyful reflection on how communities have fought to educate, inspire, and protect youth from societal harm, Dr. Baldridge’s Wallace lecture will emphasize the crucial connection between the past, present, and future of community-based youth work.