QUIG 2001

Keynote Speakers

Elliot G. Mishler, Professor of Social Psychology, Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Vicky Steinitz, Associate Professor, College of Public and Community Service, University of Massachusetts-Boston.

Doing Solidarity Work: Researchers in the Struggle for Social Justice

Professors Mishler and Steinitz use the term solidarity work to refer to alliances between researchers and people for whom the struggle for social justice is part of their daily lives. They became psychologists, in part, to do work they hoped would make the world a better place. They have learned, from their own and others experiences, how difficult it is to transform this aim into an effective practice and how important such alliances are to this task. Drawing on their participation in recent efforts by many activists and academics to stop the assault on poor women of "welfare reform" as well as on others' work that they find inspiring as research exemplars, they will discuss different roles for researchers as allies: advocates, emissaries, partners, participants. They hope to stimulate further discussion and reflection about the value and dilemmas for researchers in doing solidarity work.

Vanessa Siddle Walker, Educational Studies, Emory University.

Locating the Self in Qualitative Research

Drawing from recent research in African American communities and from her historical study, which resulted in her acclaimed book Their Highest Potential: An African American School Community in the Segregated South, Professor Siddle Walker will consider the role of the "self" in qualitative research. In her book, Siddle Walker tells the story of the Caswell County Training School in rural North Carolina. As a participant in the rural community, she found that part of her task in conducting this research was to locate herself. In her talk, she will consider how locating the self influences topics, entree to communities, questions posed, authenticity of data, and interpretation of results.

Maurice Daniels, School of Social Work, University of Georgia.

The Challenges and Experiences in Demystifying Institutional Barriers to Social and Economic Justice: Horace T. Ward and the Desegregation of the University of Georgia

Professor Daniels will describe the research process he engaged in to create Foot Soldiers for Equal Justice. This film documents the story of Horace Ward's 7-year battle to gain admittance to the University of Georgia Law School as well as his participation in the legal team that helped file the suit leading to the desegregation of the University of Georgia. A screening of his film will follow his address.,

Ronald Butchart, Social Foundations of Education, University of Georgia

Working Towards Social Justice: A Historical Perspective

After the American Civil War and emancipation, thousands of teachers responded to freed slaves' overwhelming demand for schooling. For many of those teachers and for the freed people racial justice was the paramount consideration. Until recently, historians have ignored, silenced, or distorted that history of education for justice. In his talk, Professor Butchart will discuss his historical study of freedman teachers.