York’s Faculty of Education will present Equity, Diversity, Community: A Colloquium in Honour of Patrick Solomon in celebration of York’s 50th anniversary as well as to profile its scholarly work and community outreach programs and to honour the outstanding contributions to the University and community by one of its longtime late professors.
Solomon died of cancer on Oct. 4, 2008, but his legacy continues. He began in York’s Faculty of Education in 1991 and was instrumental in launching the Urban Diversity Initiative three years later – the first of its kind in the province. To date, close to 1,000 teachers have graduated from the program. Solomon was engaged in equity, diversity and social justice works for most of his professional career.
Right: Patrick Solomon
Equity, Diversity, Community: A Colloquium in Honour of Patrick Solomon will take place Thursday, May 7 from 1 to 5pm in the Tribute Communities Recital Hall, 112 Accolade East Building, Keele campus.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Gloria Ladson-Billings, Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education, will deliver the keynote lecture. Ladson-Billings is a professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction as well as in the Department of Educational Policy Studies. She was also the 2005-2006 president of the American Educational Research Association. Her research examines the pedagogical practices of teachers who are successful with African-American students.
Left: Gloria Ladson-Billings
Ladson-Billings’ work has won numerous scholarly awards, including the 1999-2000 Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship, the 1989-1990 National Academy of Education Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship and the 1996 Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award for Outstanding Research. In 2002, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Umeå University in Umeå, Sweden, and in 2003-2004 was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. She was also the 2004 recipient of the George and Louise Spindler Award for ongoing contributions in educational anthropology, given by the Council on Anthropology & Education of the American Anthropological Association.
In addition, Ladson-Billings investigates critical race theory applications to education and is the author of The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children (Jossey-Bass, 1994) and Crossing Over to Canaan: The Journey of New Teachers in Diverse Classrooms (Jossey-Bass, 2001).
Following the keynote lecture, the colloquium will feature poster sessions, a panel discussion, video displays and short presentations of Faculty of Education programs and projects in community-based education, including York’s Westview University Partnership, the Urban Diversity Consecutive Program, Destination Arts, the Community Field Placement and the campaign for the Jean Augustine Chair in Education in the New Urban Environment.
The colloquium will culminate with a reception. RSVPs are required by Friday, May 1. To RSVP, contact Anderson Coward, communications coordinator in the Faculty of Education, at U50@edu.yorku.ca or 416-650-8024.
For more information, visit the U50 Web site.