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Boston College continues its Sesquicentennial Celebration with two major events in the next six days: a symposium on “Education and Its Role in Democratic Societies” tomorrow in the Yawkey Athletics Center, and a lecture by Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust on Oct. 10 in Robsham Theater to inaugurate the Sesquicentennial Speakers Series.
The all-day symposium, which is being held as part of the Lynch School of Education public lecture series, features two panel discussions with educational experts and a keynote address by New York University researcher Pedro Noguera. (Registration for the event ended Sept. 28.)
Following a welcome by Lynch School Interim Dean Maureen Kenny will be the first panel, “Justice, Citizenship and the Schools,” with: University of Colorado-Boulder School of Education Professor Kenneth Howe; Angela Valenzuela, associate vice president for Educational Equity at the University of Texas at Austin; and Joel Westheimer, CBC Radio education columnist and University Research Chair in Democracy and Education at the University of Ottawa.
The second panel, “The Old Civil Rights, the New Civil Rights, and the Future of the Teaching Profession,” includes: Kati Haycock, founder of The Education Trust; Schott Foundation for Public Education President and CEO John H. Jackson; and Kevin Kumashiro, professor of Asian American studies and education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Closing out the symposium will be Noguera’s keynote, “What Community Provides: The Role of Partnerships in the Transformation of Schools.” Noguera, who is Peter Agnew Professor of Education at the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, studies and writes about socioeconomic factors and other influences on student achievement.
Faust, the 28th president of Harvard and a noted Civil War historian, will speak on the topic of scholarship when she appears in Robsham Theater next Wednesday at 4 p.m. She will be awarded a Sesquicentennial Medal in recognition of her professional achievement and commitment to teaching and scholarship.
As president of Harvard, Faust has expanded financial aid to improve access for students of all economic backgrounds and advocated for increased federal funding for scientific research. She has broadened the University's international reach, raised the profile of the arts on campus, embraced sustainability, launched an online learning partnership with MIT, and promoted collaboration across academic disciplines and administrative units as she guided Harvard through a period of significant financial challenges.
She is the author of six books, including the 2008 release This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, which won the Bancroft Prize in 2009 and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. This Republic of Suffering also was the basis for the recently aired PBS American Experience documentary "Death and the Civil War," in which Faust appeared.
Information on these and other Sesquicentennial Celebration events and activities is available at www.bc.edu/150.