March 2019
AERA will hold two Town Hall meetings featuring prominent scholars and policy experts at its 2019 Annual Meeting. Building on the Town Hall meetings held at the 2018 AERA Annual Meeting, these forums will address transforming a culture of sexual harassment in the academy and scholarly professions, and research on gun violence and its implications for schools and communities.
Over the past year, AERA and other scientific societies, federal funding agencies, and the academy have continued to ramp up efforts to prevent sexual and gender harassment and improve workplace climates. The release of the National Academies’ report Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, made clear the need for sweeping changes in the culture and climate in the academy and scholarly professions. Most recently, AERA and AAAS led 75 science societies in urging the Education Department to base Title IX sexual harassment regulations on research and evidence, and AERA helped to launch the Societies Consortium on Sexual Harassment in STEMM. These efforts follow on several activities that AERA has undertaken to engage with issues of sexual harassment in academia, including supporting the Combating Sexual Harassment in Science Act. This session will assess what progress has been made, what critical next steps need to be taken, and how the education research field and other scholarly disciplines can support efforts to build upon our collective concerns and support innovative practices and policies.
Chair: Felice J. Levine (American Educational Research Association); Participants: Shirley M. Malcom (American Association for the Advancement of Science), Shaun R. Harper (University of Southern California), Shannon Lynn Burton (Michigan State University), Carol Mershon (University of Virginia), Valerie Kinloch (University of Pittsburgh)
Session Details: Session Hashtag: #AERAonSexualHarassment Friday, April 5, 4:20 p.m.– 6:20 p.m. Metro Toronto Convention Centre, 100 Level, Room 103 A&B
Chairs: Felice J. Levine (American Educational Research Association), Vivian L. Gadsden (University of Pennsylvania); Participants: Ron Avi Astor (University of Southern California), Dorothy L. Espelage (University of Florida), Matthew J. Mayer (Rutgers University), David M. Osher (American Institutes for Research), Amanda B. Nickerson (University at Buffalo)
Session Details: Session Hashtag: #AERAGunViolenceRsch Monday, April 8, 2:15 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. Metro Toronto Convention Centre, 100 Level, Room 103 A&B
The Town Hall meetings are part of AERA’s Research and Science Policy series of sessions at the Annual Meeting. These sessions, along with featured Presidential sessions, address major issues in education and education research—including connecting research to policy on Capitol Hill, reducing child poverty, and fostering transparency in education research, among others. Additional information on these and other key sessions at the 2019 Annual Meeting can be found here. To browse the full online program, click here.