Join fellow GSE students, faculty, and staff for a workshop exploring diversity issues in education with Dr. Ebony Thomas of the Graduate School of Education. The workshop will be held on Mar. 27th, from 6-8PM in GSE (3700 Walnut St) room 327.

Drawing on her experience as a classroom teacher, Dr. Thomas will present several scenarios around diversity and difference that she personally encountered. In small groups, participants will work through each scenario, brainstorming strategies for effectively addressing each situation. The session will conclude with an opportunity for participants to share their own stories as learners and teachers, and for the group to consider the challenges - and the promise! - of critical and culturally responsive discourses as we head into the 2020's.

Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas is Associate Professor in the Literacy, Culture, and International Educational Division at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. A former Detroit Public Schools teacher and National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, she was a member of the NCTE Cultivating New Voices Among Scholars of Color’s 2008-2010 cohort, served on the NCTE Conference on English Education's Executive Committee from 2013 until 2017, and is the immediate past chair of the NCTE Standing Committee on Research. Currently, she serves as co-editor of Research of the Teaching of English, and her most recent book is The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games (NYU Press, 2019).

 The workshop is part of a series titled Diversifying Education, which is a new workshop series this semester that focuses on helping GSE students, faculty and staff develop practical and theoretical skills in working with marginalized populations and educating about diversity issues. Individuals who attend three or more out of the four workshops will receive a formal acknowledgement from GSE of their participation in the series. This is an excellent resume builder for students interested in diversity issues!

If you are no longer able to attend this workshop, please let Jax Lastinger (ljlast@gse.upenn.edu) know as soon as possible.