For Immediate Release: October 8, 2021
Contact: Tony Pals, tpals@aera.net (202) 238-3235
** Media Advisory ** Lori Patton Davis to Challenge Dominant Narratives Surrounding Brown v. Board of Education in 2021 AERA Brown Lecture
Discussion Forum and Audience Q&A Will Immediately Follow Lecture
Washington, October 8, 2021—In her 2021 AERA Brown Lecture in Education Research talk on October 21, Lori Patton Davis, professor of higher education and student affairs at Ohio State University, will challenge prevailing narratives surrounding Brown and introduce perspectives that might help account for our lack of progress—perspectives that typically are overlooked or erased in wider Brown discourses. Her analysis will contribute a robust understanding of Brown and its historical and contemporary meanings in the sociopolitical contexts of racism and White supremacy.
Patton Davis’s lecture will be followed by a discussion forum and audience Q&A. Patton Davis will be joined by moderator Adam Harris (The Atlantic) and commentators Walter R. Allen (University of California, Los Angeles) and Kayla C. Elliott (The Education Trust).
“We are thrilled to have Dr. Patton Davis as our Brown Lecture speaker this year,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “She is an incredibly insightful thinker and rigorous researcher. Her talk and the discussion that follows promise to be highly engaging and thought provoking.”
Patton Davis is an influential scholar known for her cross-cutting scholarship on African Americans in higher education, critical race theory, diversity initiatives on college campuses, Black girls and women in educational and social contexts, and college student development.
National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb”—among the most powerful moments of the 2021 Presidential Inauguration—inspired the central inquiry of this year’s Brown Lecture: Why are we still climbing the hill of educational equity 67 years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown decision?
During her lecture, Patton Davis will consider several pressing questions: How can study of the circumstances that have intensified the COVID-19 pandemic fuel collective understanding of racial inequities and intersectional injustices in education? How might a critical race lens guide educators, policymakers, and researchers toward a more progressive realization of the promises of Brown? What would it take for education researchers, the majority of whom are situated in postsecondary settings, to engage in activism modeled after the work of communities still fighting for the racial and educational equity envisioned in Brown?
Who:
Lecturer: Lori Patton Davis, Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs, The Ohio State University
Moderator: Adam Harris, staff writer, The Atlantic
Commentators: Walter R. Allen, Allan Murray Cartter Professor of Higher Education and Distinguished Professor of Education, Sociology and African American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
Kayla C. Elliott, Director of Higher Education Policy, The Education Trust
What: 2021 Brown Lecture in Education Research. Patton Davis’s lecture is titled “Still Climbing the Hill: Intersectional Reflections on Brown and Beyond”
When: Thursday, October 21, 2021, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. ET.
Where: The event will broadcast on Zoom. To register at no cost, visit https://aera.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3Ni-bdhnRkWyx4raMeO5Sw
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About AERA The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is the largest national interdisciplinary research association devoted to the scientific study of education and learning. Founded in 1916, AERA advances knowledge about education, encourages scholarly inquiry related to education, and promotes the use of research to improve education and serve the public good. Find AERA on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.