November 7, 2014

College of Education to host inaugural Leonard Kaplan Education Collaborative for Critical Urban Studies event featuring bestselling author, activist and native Detroiter David E. Kirkland

David E. Kirkland

DETROIT - David E. Kirkland, bestselling author, activist, cultural critic, educator, researcher and Detroit native, will return to his hometown to deliver the keynote address during the Leonard Kaplan Education Collaborative for Critical Urban Studies' inaugural lecture and community response at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, at the McGregor Memorial Conference Center.

Hosted by the Wayne State University College of Education and the family of Professor Emeritus Leonard Kaplan, the event will celebrate the newly launched collaborative, as well as unite community leaders, teachers, students and parents for a discussion on the state of urban education. 

Kirkland, an associate professor of English and urban education at New York University, will speak about the complexities of teaching and learning in urban settings. 

"As a prominent scholar deeply committed to educational justice for youth in urban settings, Dr. Kirkland exemplifies the core vision of the Kaplan Education Collaborative for Critical Urban Studies," said Tom Pedroni, associate professor of curriculum studies in the College of Education and director of the Kaplan Collaborative. "That vision is to bring the research capacity of College of Education faculty into more direct engagement with educators, community organizations and policy-makers who share an interest in nurturing quality education for the whole child in metropolitan Detroit and Michigan."

Kirkland has spent the past 15 years analyzing the cultures, languages and texts of groups of urban American youth and has expertise in critical literary, linguistic and ethnographic research methods. A Search Past Silence: The Literacy of Black Males -- the fifth book that Kirkland has authored, co-authored, edited or co-edited -- is a TC Press bestseller and winner of the 2014 AESA Critics Choice Award and 2014 NCTE David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English. 

Kirkland earned a Ph.D. from Michigan State University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan. 

A panel discussion will follow the keynote. Panelists include:
 
•    Helen Moore, Keep the Vote No Takeover 
•    Michelle Fecteau, State Board of Education
•    Kamau Kheperu, Detroit Life Coalition
•    Ellen Cogen Lipton, House Education Committee
•    Sandra Gonzales, Bilingual and Bicultural Education, Wayne State University 
•    Coleman Ward, Detroit School of Arts

The event is free and open to the public. Hors d'oeuvres and light refreshments will be served, and complimentary parking will be available in Lot 31 on W. Ferry Avenue off Anthony Wayne Drive. For more information, call 313-577-1730.
 

The Leonard Kaplan Education Collaborative for Critical Urban Studies was founded in September 2014 to honor the lifework and vision of Leonard Kaplan, an uncompromising advocate for the social and affective well-being of the "whole child" in America's schools. The Kaplan Collaborative will carry forward his legacy by producing high-quality and interdisciplinary locally relevant research for community organizations, educational stakeholders, regional education reporters, educational policy makers and peer-reviewed journals. A founding principle of the Kaplan Collaborative is our belief that university faculty have a responsibility, as public servants, to enrich public dialogue in support of the public good.

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