September 2019
Carter’s Talk Will Be Immediately Followed by a Discussion Forum
Prudence L. Carter, a renowned scholar, award-winning author, and national expert on youth identity and race, urban poverty, and opportunity gaps in education, will give the 2019 Brown Lecture in Education Research on October 24 at 6 p.m. ET at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. A large turnout—in person and online for the livestream—is expected for the public lecture titled “‘A Shade Less Offensive’: School Integration as Radical Inclusion in the Pursuit of Educational Equity.”
The historical record reveals that in the final opinion of the landmark school segregation case Cooper v. Aaron (1958), the U.S. Supreme Court justices intentionally used the term desegregation rather than integration to soften the ire of those opposed to the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision; the justices thought the former term would be “a shade less offensive” than the latter.
In her talk, Carter, dean and professor of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, and national expert on inequality in education, will reverse this logic and discuss why educational practices of “radical inclusion” are “a shade less offensive” today than mere desegregation, in light of the persistence of educational disparities by race, ethnicity, and class.
Carter’s brief lecture will be followed by a moderated open discussion forum on the topic.
During the lecture, Carter will draw on her own research and a body of other social science evidence to show why societies marred by social and economic divides continue to struggle with the realization of integration in schools and communities. In her commentary on the multiple dimensions of educational inequality, Carter will highlight policies and evidence-based practices that have the potential to bring us closer to equity in schools and society.
Carter is the author of the award-winning book Keepin’ It Real: School Success Beyond Black and White (2005) and of Stubborn Roots: Race, Culture, and Inequality in U.S. and South African Schools (2012); and co-editor of Closing the Opportunity Gap: What America Must Do to Give Every Child an Even Chance (2013; all the books were published by Oxford University Press). She has also published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and essays.
The Brown Lecture, now in its 16th year, was inaugurated by AERA in 2004 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court took scientific research into account in issuing its landmark ruling.
The 2019 Brown Lecture Selection Committee included AERA President Vanessa Siddle Walker (Emory University), AERA Past-President Amy Stuart Wells (Teachers College, Columbia University), AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine, AERA Diversity Officer George L. Wimberly, AERA Social Justice Action Committee Chair Tabbye Chavous (University of Michigan), AERA Social Justice Action Committee Member Michelle Knight-Manuel (Teachers College, Columbia University), and AERA Social Justice Action Committee Member Danny Bernard Martin (University of Illinois at Chicago).
Planning on attending the Brown Lecture in-person or via live-stream? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter by using the hashtag #AERABrownLecture.