Brown Lecture in Education Research – Rethinking Brown When Diversityy and Equity are Imperiled and Democracy is Fragile

James A. Banks, the Kerry and Linda Killinger Endowed Chair in Diversity Studies Emeritus and founding director of the Center for Multicultural Education (now the Banks Center for Educational Justice) at the University of Washington, will give the 2025 Brown Lecture in Education Research.

The annual Brown Lecture in Education Research illuminates the important role of research in advancing understanding of equality and equity in education. The lecture was inaugurated in 2004 by the American Educational Research Association to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court took scientific research into account.

In this year’s lecture, Banks will reflect on the impact of the Brown decision through the lens of his own experience growing up in a racially segregated community in the Arkansas Delta. He will then turn to the present and examine the resurgence of White racism and nationalism that threaten efforts to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion, including multicultural education. His lecture will call on educators to implement a transformative civic education curriculum, an approach that equips students with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to become engaged citizens.

Banks has written extensive on diverity in education. Some of his most recent books include 2020’s Diversity, Transformative Knowledge, and Civic Education: Selected Essays; Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives, which went into its 10th edition in 2019; 2017’s Citizenship Education and Global Migration: Implications for Theory, Research, and Teaching; Cultural Diversity and Education: Foundations, Curriculum and Teaching, which reced its sixth edition in 2016; and 2012’s Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education.

The lecture will be followed by a discussion forum with Banks joining a moderated discussion with policy leaders. This year’s Brown Lecture is expanding opportunity for livestream attendees to share views and questions, and to register as an individual or as a watch-party group.