The Social Science Research Council and SAGE Publishing are pleased to present the first of a series of conversations—REIMAGINING SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS—a public forum focused on the work of cultivating equitable, anti-racist social institutions. The first event in the series, REIMAGINING SCHOOLS, will feature several prominent experts of inequality in higher education.

Featuring:

Prudence L. Carter
E.H. and Mary E. Pardee Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Education
University of California, Berkeley
United States

Pawan Dhingra
Professor of American Studies and Faculty Equity and Inclusion Officer
Amherst College
United States

Nasima Hassan
Academic and author
United Kingdom

Moderated by Alondra Nelson
President, Global Publishing
SAGE Publishing

Introduced by Ziyad Marar
President, Social Science Research Council
Harold F. Linder Professor, Institute for Advanced Study

This program is presented as part of the Social Science Research Council’s Inequality Initiative, a series of programs and projects that bring innovative social science analysis to bear on our understanding of the roots and consequences of unequal participation in political, economic, and social systems across the globe.

Watch the Event

About the Speakers
Prudence L. Carter is the E.H. and Mary E. Pardee Professor and dean of the Graduate School of Education at Berkeley. Dean Carter’s expertise centers on issues of youth identity and race, class, and gender; urban poverty; social and cultural inequality; the sociology of education; and mixed research methods. Specifically, she examines academic and mobility differences shaped by the effects of race, ethnicity, class, and gender. Dean Carter earned a PhD in sociology from Columbia University. She is author of Keepin’ It Real: School Success beyond Black and White and Stubborn Roots: Race, Culture, and Inequality in U.S. and South African Schools. Before being named dean at Berkeley, she was the Jacks Family Professor of Education and professor of sociology (by courtesy) at Stanford University. Dean Carter is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and the Sociological Research Association and a fellow of the American Educational Research Association. She also serves on the Board of Trustees for the William T. Grant Foundation and SOAR for Youth.

Pawan Dhingra is professor of American studies and faculty equity and inclusion officer at Amherst College. He is a former curator at the Smithsonian Institution. He has been published in the New York Times, CNN, and elsewhere, and his work has been profiled in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, the White House forum on AAPI heritage, and other venues. He is a multiple award-winning author whose latest book is Hyper Education: Why Good Schools, Good Grades, and Good Behavior Are Not Enough, which author Min Jin Lee described as a “fascinating exploration [that] gets to the root of education obsessions.” He also appears in the Netflix documentary Spelling the Dream. An award-winning teacher, he has held tenured positions at Tufts University and Oberlin College.

Nasima Hassan, originally from Lancashire, has worked in secondary school teaching humanities, in teacher training, and in strategic management in higher education. She has worked extensively overseas supporting teachers’ professional development in India (Bangalore), South Africa (Kwazulu Natal), and most recently in conjunction with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia. She has published on the education system in South Africa, faith schools, and the schooling experience of British Muslims. Her doctoral thesis explored the concept of “Muslim consciousness” through a philosophical and political exploration of identity construction. She is coauthor, with Tomas Boronski, of Sociology of Education.