Past AERA Brown Lectures:
2023
Otherwise Qualified: The Untold Story of Brown and Black Educators' Professional Superiority
Leslie T. Fenwick, Howard University and AACTE
On October 19, Leslie T. Fenwick presented the 2023 Brown Lecture in Education Research to an in-person audience and livestream.
View the entire lecture — Webcast
View the event program
Read the October 2023 AERA Highlights recap
2022
Defending the Color Line: White Supremacy, Opportunity Hoarding, and the Legacy of Brown
John B. Diamond, Brown University
On November 3, John B. Diamond presented the 2022 Brown Lecture in Education Research to an in-person and virtual audience.
View the entire lecture — Webcast
Read the November 2022 AERA Highlights recap
View the event program
2021
Still Climbing the Hill: Intersectional Reflections on Brown and Beyond
Lori Patton Davis, The Ohio State University
On October 21, Lori Patton Davis presented the 2021 AERA Brown Lecture in Education Research, “Still Climbing the Hill: Intersectional Reflections on Brown and Beyond,” to an audience of more than 2,200 viewers from 36 countries.
View the entire lecture — Webcast
Read the October 2021 AERA Highlights recap
View the event program
2020
The Segregation Pandemic: Brown as Treatment or Placebo?
William F. Tate IV, University of South Carolina
On October 22, William F. Tate IV delivered the 17th Annual AERA Brown Lecture, “‘The Segregation Pandemic: Brown as Treatment or Placebo?“ with a broadcast that reached more than 3,100 viewers from 40 countries.
View the Entire Lecture — Webcast
Read the October 2020 AERA Highlights recap
View the event program
2019
‘A Shade Less Offensive’: School Integration as Radical Inclusion in the Pursuit of Educational Equity
Prudence L. Carter, University of California, Berkeley
On October 24, Prudence L. Carter delivered the 16th Annual AERA Brown Lecture, “‘A Shade Less Offensive’: School Integration as Radical Inclusion in the Pursuit of Educational Equity,” to an overflow audience of more than 900 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. The talk was followed by a discussion forum and was watched by 740 online viewers from around the world.
View the Entire Lecture — Webcast
Download the Slides (PDF)
Read the October 2019 AERA Highlights recap
Disrupting Punitive Practices and Policies: Rac(e)ing Back to Teaching, Teacher Preparation, and Brown
H. Richard Milner IV, Vanderbilt University
On October 25, H. Richard Milner IV delivered the 15th annual Brown lecture, “Disrupting Punitive Practices and Policies: Rac(e)ing Back to Teaching, Teacher Preparation, and Brown,” to a packed house of more than 900 at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. The talk was followed by an open discussion forum and was joined by more than 450 online viewers from around the world.
View the entire lecture — webcast
Download the slides (pdf)
Read the October 2018 AERA Highlights recap
Re-envisioning Equity Research: Disability Identification Disparities as a Case in Point
Alfredo J. Artiles, Arizona State University
On October 19, Alfredo J. Artiles delivered the 14th Annual Brown Lecture, “Re-envisioning Equity Research: Disability Identification Disparities as a Case in Point,” to a packed house of more than 900 at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. The talk was followed by an open discussion forum and was joined by more than 450 online viewers from around the world.
View the Entire Lecture — Webcast
Read the Full Text — Educational Researcher, August/September 2019
Download the Slides (PDF)
Read the October 2017 AERA Highlights recap and view photos from the Lecture
|
|
Public Education and the Social Contract: Restoring the Promise in an Age of Diversity and Division
Marta Tienda, Princeton University
Marta Tienda, a leading scholar on immigration, population diversification, and poverty and the roles they play in access to education, delivered the 13th annual AERA Brown Lecture in Education Research on October 20 to a packed house of more than 600 attendees at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., and to more than 350 online viewers from around the world.
Tienda’s lecture, “Public Education and the Social Contract: Restoring the Promise in an Age of Diversity and Division,” asked whether it is possible to rewrite the social contract so that equal access to quality education is a fundamental right—a statutory guarantee—that is both uniform across states and federally enforceable.
View the entire lecture — webcast
Read the full text — Educational Researcher, August/September 2017
Download the slides (PDF)
Read the October 2016 AERA Highlights recap and view photos of the lecture
|
|
So That Any Child May Succeed—Indigenous Pathways Toward Justice and Promise of Brown
Teresa L. McCarty, University of California—Los Angeles
Teresa L. McCarty, a world-renowned expert on indigenous education issues, delivered the 12th annual AERA Brown Lecture in Education Research on October 22 to a packed house of 500 attendees at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., and to more than 300 online viewers from around the world.
McCarty’s lecture, “So That Any Child May Succeed—Indigenous Pathways Toward Justice and Promise of Brown,” was the first Brown lecture to focus on indigenous education issues.
View the entire lecture — webcast
Read the full text — Educational Researcher, June/July 2018
Download the slides (pdf)
2015 Brown Lecture photos
Read the october 2015 AERA Highlights recap
|
|
2014
A Long Shadow: The American Pursuit of Political Justice and Education Equality
James D. Anderson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Before a record audience of over 700 on-site attendees at the Ronald Reagan Center in Washington, D.C., and more than 500 online viewers from around the world, James D. Anderson delivered the 11th Annual AERA Brown Lecture in Education Research.
Anderson’s lecture, “A Long Shadow: The American Pursuit of Political Justice and Education Equality,” explored the historic and inseparable relationship between the right and freedom to vote and the pursuit of education equality. Anderson is Edward William and Jane Marr Gutsgell Professor of Education and Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
View the entire lecture — webcast
Read the full text — Educational Researcher, August/September 2015
Download the slides (PDF)
2014 Brown Lecture photos
2014 Brown Lecture page
|
|
A New Civil Rights Agenda for American Education: Creating Opportunity in a Stratified Multiracial Nation
Gary Orfield, UCLA
On Thursday, October 24, 2013, an audience of nearly 700 viewers in person and over 430 online watched as professor Gary Orfield (University of California, Los Angeles) presented A New Civil Rights Agenda for American Education: Creating Opportunity in a Stratified Multiracial Nation. The Brown Lecture is now in its tenth year, inaugurated in 2004 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
Orfield’s lecture took heated aim at the state of civil rights in the U.S., with an emphasis on outdated approaches to the changing dynamics of segregation and the lack of awareness of racial inequality.
View the entire lecture — webcast
Read the full text — Educational Researcher, August/September 2014
2013 photo gallery
2013 press coverage
2013 Brown Lecture page
|
|
Original Intent: Black Educators in an Elusive Quest for Justice
Vanessa Siddle Walker, Emory University
On October 26th, Vanessa Siddle Walker, the Samuel Dobbs Professor of Educational Studies at Emory University, presented the 2012 AERA Annual Brown Lecture in Education Research in Washington, D.C. “Original Intent: Black Educators in an Elusive Quest for Justice” was delivered to a packed house. Siddle Walker’s ground-breaking lecture challenged the historically accepted view of black educators in the era of Brown v. Board of Education and earlier. Many people continue to view those educators as less instrumental in the supreme court decision than the more often celebrated parents and attorneys.
view the entire lecture — webcast read the full text — educational researcher, may 2013 conversation with vanessa siddle walker
|
|
Through a Glass Darkly: The Persistence of Race in Education Research
Gloria J. Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Ladson-Billings entitled her address "Through a Glass Darkly: The Persistence of Race in Education Research." She raised fundamental issues about the connections between research and data and issues of social inequality and education in society. Ladson-Billings is the Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education and Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former AERA President (2005-2006).
View the entire lecture — webcast
Read the full text — Educational Researcher, May 2012
Conversation with Gloria J. Ladson-Billings
Event photos
2011 Brown Lecture announcement |
|
2010
Educating Language Minority Students and Affirming Their Equal Rights: Research and Practical Perspectives
Kenji Hakuta
Kenji Hakuta, Lee L. Jacks Professor at Stanford University School of Education, focused his lecture on the 1974 U.S. Supreme Court decision Lau v. Nichols, which involved equal educational opportunities for nearly 1,800 Chinese students in the San Francisco unified school district. Ever since that decision, the nation’s education system has struggled with how to address the question of equal educational opportunity for English language learners. Debates in congress, states, and local districts, as well as in the courts, have been juxtaposed with various reform efforts focused on teachers, standards, instruction, assessment, accountability, and values.
View the entire lecture — webcast
Read the full text — Educational Researcher, May 2011
Conversation with Kenji Hakuta
2010 Brown Lecture news release
|
|
2009
Mobilizing Culture, Language, and Educational Practices: Fulfilling the Promises of Mendez and Brown
Luis C. Moll
Luis C. Moll, professor in the Department of Language, Reading and Culture at the University of Arizona College of Education, recounts the circumstances of the 1946 california court case Mendez v. Westminster, which led to desegregation of California’s public schools and presaged Brown v. Board of Education. Sylvia Mendez, whose family undertook a legal challenge to secure her entrance into the Westminster School, was a special guest of AERA for the lecture.
View the entire lecture — webcast
Read the full text — Educational Researcher, August/September 2010
2009 Brown Lecture news release
|
|
|
2008
The Brown Legacy and the O’Connor Challenge: Transforming Schools in the Images of Children’s Potential
Stephen W. Raudenbush
Stephen W. Raudenbush, Lewis-Sebring Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago, looks at the continuing achievement gap between white students and black students and ways in which persistent inequality can be overcome. Writing the majority opinion in the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court case Grutter v. Bollinger, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor expressed the hope that in 25 years affirmative action would no longer be needed. Raudenbush looks ahead to that date—2028—and expresses a conviction that, despite a multiplicity of causes of inequality, school improvement can by itself play a powerful role in overcoming educational consequences of racial inequality. The task of engaging children in ambitious intellectual work, however, begins with innovative ways of thinking about best school practice and use of the best available education research to make connections between developmental science, instructional practice, and school organization.
View the entire lecture — webcast
Read the full text — Educational Researcher, April 2009
2008 Brown Lecture news release
|
2007
Lessons Learned and Opportunities Ignored since Brown v. Board of Education: Youth Development and the Myth of a Colorblind Society
Margaret Beale Spencer
Margaret Beale Spencer, Board of Overseers Professor of Applied Psychology and Human development at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, explores skin color bias in the United States. Drawing upon a wealth of research, Spencer speaks of color bias as a continuing social issue that deserves careful scrutiny as a health hazard. to maintain the myth of a colorblind society, she maintains, appears counterproductive to the point of being wasteful if it averts the use of strategies needed by youth to cope with racial stereotypes.
View the entire lecture — webcast
Read the full text — Educational Researcher, June 2008
2007 Brown Lecture news release
2006
The Flat Earth and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future
Linda Darling-Hammond
Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University, outlines current disparities in educational access; illustrates the relationships between race, educational resources, and student achievement; and proposes reforms needed to equalize opportunities to learn.
View the entire lecture — webcast
Read the full text — Educational Researcher, August 2007
2006 Brown Lecture news release
|
2005
Contingencies of Identity and Schooling in a Diverse Society: Toward Reducing Inequality of Outcomes
Claude M. Steele
Claude M. Steele presented this special AERA lecture, which focuses on equality and equity in education research. A Stanford university psychologist, Professor Steele has conducted research that has changed how social scientists think about prejudice and stereotypes. On September 1, Professor Steele became Director of the prestigious Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, an independent organization dedicated to advancing knowledge about human behavior through research. The center is located in Stanford, California.
View the entire lecture — webcast
2005 Brown Lecture news release

Education, Excellence and Equity: Toward Equitable Access to Excellence in Education
Edmund W. Gordon
Edmund W. Gordon, Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, presented the inaugural Brown Lecture, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, which took scientific research into account in issuing this landmark ruling.
View the entire lecture — webcast
2004 Brown Lecture news release
Viewing Requirements
These sessions require may Microsoft Media Player to view. if you do not have a recent version of Microsoft Media Player, you can download the latest versions by clicking here. You will need to be connected to the internet to download the player. |
|