MEDIA ADVISORY

U-M holds Brown event on future of multicultural teaching

ANN ARBOR—University of Michigan will mark the 50th anniversary of the historic Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court case—which desegregated the nation’s public schools—with a day-long focus Monday on the future of multicultural teaching, diversity and related education issues.

The landmark case, whose legacy has impacted many access-to-public education cases including U-M’s own 2003 Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, has been celebrated throughout winter term with a series of events and a Brown v. Board of Education theme semester. The May 17 event will be the culmination of the Brown semester.

Speakers will include:

• U-M Provost Paul N. Courant and Constance Cook, director of the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT).

• Lawrence Bobo, Harvard University professor of sociology and African American Studies, and Terrence McDonald, dean of U-M’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. They will discuss the politics of inclusion in a contested world.

• Patricia Gurin, U-M professor emeritus of psychology and women’s studies, whose research on how students benefit from diversity was part of U-M’s Supreme Court case.

• Mark Chesler, U-M sociology professor, who will lead a discussion on pedagogy that works.

Faculty will also participate in sessions on multicultural teaching methods that work best.

A half century ago, Linda Brown was a Topeka, Kansas girl forced to walk seven blocks and then ride a bus five miles to school each day because she was barred from attending an all-white public school four blocks from her home. Linda Brown Thompson and her sister, Cheryl Brown Henderson, shared their story with the U-M community in January to kick off the Brown v. Board semester. For more information, visit: http://www.umich.edu/brown50