Dean’s Lecture Series

Upcoming Series


Details about the 2024–25 series will be available in August. Please check back.

2024–25 Theme — A Just Society: Equity, Belonging and Community

GSE is committed to creating an equitable, diverse, inclusive and just community where all feel welcomed, included, supported and empowered. It is crucial our communities have equal access to supports, services and opportunities that ensure learning and success.

Invited speakers were selected by a committee of junior faculty who also picked the theme. Their topics reflect a range of perspectives on the theme, representing the various departments within GSE.

Upcoming Lectures

Event Cancellation Notice

Due to unforeseen circumstances, The Power of Belonging: Reflections From Research With Latinx Immigrant Youth in Schools and Communities, scheduled for March 7, 2025, has been canceled. We appreciate your understanding and encourage you to explore future lectures in the UB GSE Dean’s Lecture Series.

The Power of Belonging: Reflections From Research With Latinx Immigrant Youth in Schools and Communities

Friday, March 7, 2025 | 2:30-4:30 p.m. | O'Brian 209 and via Zoom

Sophia Rodriguez.

Sophia Rodriguez
Associate Professor
New York University Steinhardt

Sophia Rodriguez, PhD, is a leading scholar in racial equity, urban education and policy, focusing on the voices of minoritized youth. Her research, funded by the Spencer and W.T. Grant Foundations, explores how schools and communities foster inclusion for immigrant youth. She has received numerous accolades, including the William T. Grant Scholars Award and the Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association. Dr. Rodriguez founded the ImmigrantEdNext Research Lab, where she mentors students in research addressing social justice and belonging. Her work has been widely published in prestigious academic journals and featured in the Washington Post.

Abstract
 This presentation will highlight Dr. Rodriguez's longitudinal mixed-methods study with multiple school districts in the mid-Atlantic region and findings from surveys with over 3400 youth, as well as qualitative fieldwork and interviews with minoritized youth. The study shows that unwelcoming school racial climates impact Latinx immigrant youths' sense of belonging. She will outline ways that schools can create a more positive and welcoming environment, including how districts can forge partnerships with community-based organizations to ensure positive belonging and well-being for youth. 

Register Here

Past Lectures

Trans-Disciplinary Learning With Community at Heart

Friday, Sept. 20, 2024 | 2:30-4 p.m. | Zoom

Miwa Takeuchi-first Dean's Lecture Series speaker.

Miwa Takeuchi
Associate Professor
Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary

Associate Professor in the Learning Sciences at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. Her work is centered around equity and social justice in mathematics and STEM education. Working collaboratively with learners, teachers, community activists, and "families," she aims to co-design the learning environments that can leverage learners' embodied and emplaced disciplinary experiences into a transdisciplinary imagination toward social and environmental justice. 

Abstract
 Dr. Takeuchi's work has been guided by the voices of young learners and their families, who live across multiple national and linguistic borders and have experienced forced displacement. The voices and wisdom rooted in the community should be at the center of trans-disciplining acts that disrupt and repair the siloed disciplinary works within the academia, to address pressing socio-environmental issues. Drawing from ongoing research-design partnerships with community partners and teachers, she highlights how we have collectively learned to be attuned to colonial histories through micro-interactions grounded in the land, and how we have rekindled our relationships with the soil, more-than-humans, and each other.

Dean’s Lecture Series Archive