Commencement Weekend Reception for the class of 2023
Date: Saturday, May 27
Time: 1:30-2:30 p.m.
Location: John Pemberton III Lounge, Chapin Hall
Graduating seniors in Anthropology and Sociology, American Studies, and Education Studies are invited to introduce their families to faculty and staff, while enjoying hot or cold coffee, tea and desserts from Esselon Cafe.
Reflections on Virtual Reality and Learning in a Neuroscience Laboratory Activity–Opportunities for Pedagogy
Jaya Kannan and Josef Trapani
Date: Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Time: 4:30-5:30 p.m.
Location: CHI Think Tank, Frost Library
This is the final presentation in this year's Education Collective Research Series, organized by the Education Studies Club and supported by the Education Studies Program.
Navigating the Multitude of Educational Choices with Gil Schmerler '64
Date: Sunday, April 23, 2023
Time: 8:00-9:30 p.m.
Location: Paino Lecture Hall (Beneski 107)
As part of the Alumni-in-Residence Program, Gil Schmerler ’64 will speak to the process of applying for jobs within and choosing from the wide variety of school models. Informed by his study of and work as both an educator and administrator in public and private, charter and district-based, and alternative and traditional schools, he will discuss:
- What to Look for in Schools
- How to Impress in an Interview
- How to Interact with Colleagues
- What to Value in Graduate School
- What Jobs Other Than Teaching Are Available in Education
Currently, he serves as a charter school's board chair, remains involved in public education, and is a major personalization advocate. Gil is also the director of the Leadership for Educational Change program at the Bank Street Graduate School of Education in New York City, and serves as a graduate advisor to numerous schools.
Alumni-in-Residence events are hosted by Amherst College's Loeb Center for Career Exploration & Planning. Learn more about the program at https://careers.amherst.edu/channels/alumni-in-residence/
The Power of Promising Free Tuition
Susan Dynarski, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Date: Wednesday, April 12, 2023
Time: 5:00-6:00 p.m.
Location: Stirn Auditorium, Mead Museum
Professor Dynarski, herself a first-generation college graduate, will speak on financial aid and increasing college access for disadvantaged students. Her lecture is sponsored by Amherst's Department of Economics, the Education Studies Program, the Lamont and Eastman Lecture Funds, and the Provost and Dean of the Faculty's Office.
Susan Dynarski is Patricia Albjerg Graham Professor of Education at Harvard University. She is a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a member of the National Academy of Education, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Carnegie Fellow. Dynarski’s research focuses on reducing inequality in education. She has consulted on education and tax policy with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, White House, Treasury, and the Department of Education. She has testified to the US Senate Finance and HELP Committees, the US House Ways and Means Committee, and the President's Commission on Tax Reform.
Education Studies Open House
Date: Thursday, March 30, 2023
Time: 4:30-5:30 p.m.
Location: CHI Think Tank
Prospective majors and other students interested in the program are welcome to join us for refreshments and conversation about Education Studies at Amherst. Bring your questions and we'll have answers!
Bearing Witness in Academia: Testimonio Methodology and Pedagogy
Judith Flores Carmona, New Mexico State University
Date: Thursday, March 30, 2023
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: UMass, 163C Campus Center
With deep roots as an oral tradition, testimonios are used to divulge lived realities and enduring struggles of people who have experienced persecution, marginalization and oppression. Judith Flores Carmona will frame testimonio as a pedagogy and illuminate possibilities for incorporation into educational spaces to advance educational equity and liberatory education.
Dr. Judith Flores Carmona (PhD, University of Utah) is associate professor in the Honors College, faculty fellow for the Office of the Vice President for Equity, Inclusion and Diversity and affiliate faculty in Borderlands and Ethnic Studies at New Mexico State University (NMSU). Dr. Flores Carmona is the daughter of Josefina and Vicente (QEPD/RIP). She was born in Veracruz, Mexico, raised in South Los Angeles and is a first-generation college student and scholar. Her academic and community work is guided by a sense of responsibility and commitment to social justice. Her research and scholarship includes critical pedagogy, critical race feminism, critical multicultural education, and testimonio methodology and pedagogy. Her work has appeared in Equity and Excellence in Education, Qualitative Inquiry, in the Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education, and in Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, among others. She is currently co-editor of Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social.
This lecture is sponsored by the Office of Civic Engagement and Service-Learning at UMass Amherst, the Commonwealth Honors College, the Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies at UMass Amherst, the Education Studies Program at Amherst College, and the Eastman and Lamont Lecture Funds of Amherst College.
A Conversation with Tressie McMillan Cottom
Date: Wednesday, March 29
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: UMass Amherst, Student Union Ballroom, 41 Campus Center Way
Link to Register: Online registration
Tressie McMillan Cottom is a professor with the Center for Information, Technology and Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill, a New York Times columnist, and a 2020 MacArthur Fellow. She will speak on higher education. Registration for this event is encouraged but not required.
Professor Cottom’s first book, Lower Ed, captures how profit and debt moved from the margins of higher education to bankrupt the very heart of American meritocracy. She argues that bad federal policy, state disinvestment, amoral narratives about meritocracy, and prestige-driven cultures of traditional higher education all share responsibility for LowerEd. Influential change-makers like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and activists like The Debt Strike Collective cite her book as important for changing the conversation about higher education.
This event is sponsored by the UMass College of Education and the Five College Consortium.
Indigenous Education and Storytelling: "Know Better, Do Better"
Date: Monday, March 27
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: Friedmann Room, Keefe Campus Center
Join us for a talk with Whitney Rencountre II, who is Hunkpati Dakota from the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, and Jessie Taken Alive-Rencountre, who is Hunkpapa Lakota from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
This event is presented by the Native and Indigenous Student Association in collaboration with AAS, MRC, ODEI, the American Studies Department and the Education Studies Program.
Education Studies Capstone Symposium
Date: Friday, March 24, 2023
Time: 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Location: CHI Think Tank
Please join the Education Studies class of 2023 for a showcase of their work. Each student will offer a brief research presentation and take questions from the audience. All are welcome to attend this multidisciplinary event, and ample refreshments will be provided.
Presenters are as follows:
August Bates: "Disability in the Elite Liberal Arts College Environment: Challenges and Recommendations for Improvement at Amherst College"
Lucheyla Celestino: “Impacts of College Level Language Learning Environments: An Examination of How Heritage Speakers and Second Language Learners Experience Spanish at Amherst College and Beyond”
E. J. Collins: "To Be Young, Conscious, and Black in North Carolina: The Decline of Institutions of
Radical Education and the Rise of Neoliberalism in Public Education (1960-1980)"
Avery Flynn: "Mademoiselle Flynn: A Non-native French Language Teacher, Learner, and Everything in Between"
Eugene Lee: ""The Legacy of Restrictive Language Policies: Question 2"
Tessa Levenstein: "Ray Fadden and the Akwesasne Mohawk Counselor Organization: How One Youth Organization Inspired a Generation of Indigenous Activism"
Masahiro Nishikawa: "A Still-alive Tradition of Black Radical Thinking: How Charter Schools Help Counter Neoliberal Ideology"
Joy Won: "Florence Nightingale: (Data) Feminist?"
The Education Collective Research Series Returns!
Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2023
Time: 4:30-5:30 p.m.
Location: CHI Think Tank, Frost Library
The Education Collective Research Series, organized by the Education Studies Club, returns this semester with a presentation by Nicholas Horton, professor of technology and society (statistics and data science), on "Feature Engineering and Classification: How Students Make Sense of Clickbait." All are welcome!
