January 2015

AERA President Joyce E. King has announced William F. Tate, Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, and John Whittington Franklin as major speakers at the 2015 Annual Meeting.  The meeting—scheduled for April 16-20 in Chicago—is the single largest gathering of scholars in the education research field and is a showcase for innovative, thoughtful scholarly discourse.

Tate, AERA 2008 Past President, will give the Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture on April 17. He is Dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, Vice Provost for Graduate Education, and Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. His scholarly work has focused on social determinants of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology attainment; epidemiological models and geospatial applications with a focus on adolescent and child developmental outcomes; and social development of youth in the context of urban communities.

Lagemann, a leading historian of education and a nationally known expert on education research, will give the AERA Distinguished Lecture on April 17. She is a Levy Institute Research Professor at Bard College and Distinguished Fellow at the Bard Prison Initiative. Previously, Lagemann served as Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and President of the Spencer Foundation. She also has been President of the National Academy of Education and of the History of Education Society.

Franklin, who has worked on African American, African, and African diaspora programs for more than two decades at the Smithsonian Institution, will give the Opening Plenary Session on April 16. He currently is Director of Partnerships and International Programs at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. He has served on the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture and on the Board of Governors of the Joint Center for Economic and Political Studies.

Additional information about these and other noteworthy sessions will become available in the coming weeks. The full Annual Meeting schedule will be released in late February. (Click here to sign up for AERA15 Insider, AERA’s monthly Annual Meeting e-newsletter, for updates and useful meeting information.)

More than 14,000 attendees are expected at the 2015 Annual Meeting, including nearly 10,000 presenters. The meeting’s theme is “Toward Justice: Culture, Language, and Heritage in Education Research and Praxis.”

The Annual Meeting program will offer a distinguished list of speakers and more than 2,000 sessions planned by AERA divisions and SIGs, including presentations and discussions on the cutting-edge research and ideas that will shape tomorrow’s education practices and policies in a diverse array of areas—from early education through higher education, from digital learning to second language literacy.  Click here for more information about the 2015 meeting.