Education Program

2020-21 Education Program Speaker Series

picture of Travis Bristol
Developing and Retaining Teachers of Color 

Date and time: Monday, March 1, 4pm

Speaker: Travis Bristol, Assistant Professor, Berkeley Graduate School of Education 

Travis J. Bristol is an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. Before joining Berkeley's faculty, he was a Peter Paul Assistant Professor at Boston University. Dr. Bristol's research is situated at the intersection of educational policy and teacher education. Using qualitative methods, he explores three related research strands: (1) the role of educational policies in shaping teacher workplace experiences and retention; (2) district and school-based professional learning communities; (3) the role of race and gender in educational settings. Dr. Bristol's research has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Urban Education, the American Educational Research Journal, the Journal of Teacher Education, Teachers College Record, and Harvard Educational Review. He is currently co-editing (with Conra Gist) The Handbook of Research on Teachers of Color, which will be published by the American Educational Research Association (AERA).  The National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, Ford Foundation, and AERA awarded Dr. Bristol dissertation fellowships in 2013. In 2016, he received the inaugural teacher diversity research award from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. In 2019, Dr. Bristol received a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship and an emerging scholar award from the Comparative and International Education Society, African Diaspora SIG. In 2020, he received a National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Bristol is on the Board of Directors of Teach Plus; the National Center for Teacher Residencies; and the East Bay School for Boys. He is a former student and teacher in New York City public schools and teacher educator with the Boston Teacher Residency program. Dr. Bristol received his A.B. from Amherst College; an M.A. from Stanford University; and a Ph.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University.

This talk is co-sponsored by the Education Program; the Marya Levenson Fund for Education; Equity, and Racial Justice; the Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy; the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; and the School of Arts and Sciences Co-curricular Fund.

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A Forgotten Migration: Black Southerners and Graduate Education During the Age of Jim Crow

Date and time: Monday, March 15, 4pm

Speaker: Crystal Sanders, Associate Professor of History and African American Studies at Penn State 

Crystal R. Sanders is an award-winning historian of the United States in the twentieth century.  Her research and teaching interests include African American History, Black Women's History, and the History of Black Education.  She received her BA (cum laude) in History and Public Policy from Duke University and a Ph.D. in History from Northwestern University. She is an Associate Professor of History and the former Director of the Africana Research Center at Pennsylvania State University. During the 2020-2021 academic year, she is a fellow at the National Humanities Center

Dr. Sanders is the author of A Chance for Change: Head Start and Mississippi's Black Freedom Struggle published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2016 as part of the John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture.  The book won the 2017 Critics Choice Award from the American Educational Research Association and the 2017 New Scholar’s Book Award from Division F of the American Educational Research Association. The book was also a finalist for the 2016 Hooks National Book Award. Sanders’ work can also be found in many of the leading history journals including the Journal of Southern History, the North Carolina Historical Review, and the Journal of African American History.  She is currently writing a book on black southerners' efforts to secure graduate education during the age of Jim Crow.

Dr. Sanders is the recipient of a host of fellowships and prizes. These honors include the C. Vann Woodward Prize from the Southern Historical Association, the Huggins-Quarles Award from the Organization of American Historians, a Andrew Mellon Graduate Fellowship in Humanistic Studies, a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, and a Visiting Scholars Fellowship at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

This talk is co-sponsored by the Education Program; the History Department; the Marya Levenson Fund for Education, Equity, and Racial Justice; the Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy; the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; and the School of Arts and Sciences Co-curricular Fund.

picture of Stefan Bradley

Date and time: Monday, April 12, 4:30 pm

Speaker: Stefan Bradley, Coordinator for Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives in the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts and Professor of African American Studies at Loyola Marymount University

Reared in Yakima, Washington, Stefan M. Bradley is currently the Coordinator for Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives in the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts and Professor of African American Studies at Loyola Marymount University.  Bradley received his Ph.D. in 20th Century US History with an Emphasis on the Black Experience from the University of Missouri-Columbia; an M.A. in the same from Washington State University; and, a B.A. in History from Gonzaga University.  An educator at heart, Bradley’s life ambition is to personally teach/mentor/inspire the young people who change the world for the better.

Some of Bradley’s publications include his newest book, Upending the Ivory Tower:  Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Ivy League, which won the History of Education Society Outstanding Book Award as well as the Anna Julia Cooper & CLR James Book Award from the National Council of Black Studies; Harlem vs. Columbia University:  Black Student Power in the Late 1960s, which won the Phillis Wheatley Book Prize; and, Alpha Phi Alpha:  A Legacy of Greatness, The Demands of Transcendence.  His articles have been featured in the Journal of African American History, the Journal of Civil and Human Rights, and American Studies.  To discuss his research, he has appeared on C-Span BookTV; NPR; PRI, as well as at universities and colleges throughout the nation.

He has received numerous honors and awards including the Don Brennan Humanitarian Award; the Better Family Life Excellence in Educational Leadership Award; the SLU Faculty Excellence Award; the Ernest A. Calloway, Jr. Teaching Excellence Award; and, the St. Louis American’s Salute to Excellence Young Leaders Award.  He was selected as one of Delux Magazine’s Power 100.

Generous with his time, Bradley frequently volunteers on and off campus.  In the wake of the tragic events in Ferguson and St. Louis, he engaged in discussions with representatives from the US Department of Justice, Civil Rights Commission, and Department of Education.  As a voice from the community, Bradley has appeared on BET, MSNBC, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and in the New York Times.

This talk is co-sponsored by the Education Program; the History Department; the Marya Levenson Fund for Education, Equity, and Racial Justice; the Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy; the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; and the School of Arts and Sciences Co-curricular Fund.