Faculty Brownbag Speaker Series 2011 – 2012

Location : All Faculty Speaker Series will be held at Kimball Hall, 246 Greene Street, 3 ^rd Floor Conference Room.

SEAN CORCORAN - Associate Professor of Educational Economics

Wednesday, November 2, 2011; 12:00 – 1:00PM

Professor Corcoran's research focuses on three areas: human capital in the teaching profession, education finance, and school choice. His recent papers have examined long-run trends in the quality of teachers, the impact of income inequality and court-ordered school finance reform on the level and equity of education funding in the United States, and the political economy of school choice reforms.  In 2009, he led the first evaluation of the Aspiring Principals Program in New York City, and he is currently working on a retrospective assessment of the Bloomberg-Klein reforms to school choice and competition in New York City for the American Institutes for Research.  He co-edits a book series on alternative teacher compensation systems for the Economic Policy Institute, and in recent years has been interested in value-added measures of evaluating teacher effectiveness, both their statistical properties and their obstacles to practical implementation. His recent publications can be found in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Journal of Urban Economics, and the American Economic Review.

WINSTON THOMPSON - Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Education

Monday, December 5, 2011; 12:00-1:00 PM

Winston C. Thompson works in philosophy of education with an emphasis on topics of ethics and social/political philosophy. His research on educational equity and fairness focuses upon the demands of justice in liberal contexts, with his recent work investigating the underlying ethical issues relevant to policy discussions around higher educational access in the United States. He is interested in the creation and cultivation of self-respect through educational experiences and has articulated the moral necessity of the recognition of human dignity in the design of educational systems. He is currently considering the role of autonomy across cultures and the limitations of western political and moral philosophy. Thompson has presented and published his work internationally and taught at Hofstra University as well as Teachers College, Columbia University, where he earned his Ph.D.

DAVID AUSTELL - Director, Office of International Students and Scholars, NYU  

 Wednesday, February 22, 2012 ; 12:00 – 1:00PM

Dr. David B. Austell is the Director of the Office for International Students and Scholars at New York University, where he is also an Associate Professor of International Education in the NYU Steinhardt School (adjunct).  David has bachelors and masters degrees in English Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he also completed his Ph.D. in Higher Education, focusing on International Education (his dissertation, The Birds in the Rich Forest, concerned Chinese students in the United States during the Student Democracy Movement). Among his professional publications are “The New Proselytes” and “Lessons from the Railsplitter: Observations on Leadership” (both in International Educator); and “Servant Leadership in International Education” (in the Journal of Global Initiatives). In 1992, he was a Fulbright grantee in Korea and Japan.  His first book of poetry, Little Creek, was published in 2011 by Nirala Press, and his second volume, Garuda (also published by Nirala), will be released in spring 2012.  David has worked in the field of International Education for 25 years.

JONATHAN ZIMMERMAN - Professor of History and Education; Department Chair 

Monday, March 5, 2012; 12:00-1:00 PM

"States of Desire: How Sex Education Encircled the Globe"

This talk will explore the roots and development of sex education around the world. The chief progenitor and exporter of sex education was the United States, which developed and distributed sex-ed curricula stressing abstinence and self-control in the service of the greater good. But this model came under challenge in the post-WWII period from continental Europe, especially Scandinavia, where sex education emphasized individual rights--and, especially, individual pleasure--rather than collective goals. With the advent of AIDS, finally, school systems in the so-called Third World instituted sex-ed curricula that resembled the American model much more than the European one. Even in this era of so-called "globalization" and cultural convergence, sex education highlights the enormous differences across nations as well as within them.

LINDSEY SASAKI - Visiting Instructor of International Education 

Wednesday, April 4, 2012; 12:00-1:00 PM

“Flyjin or Stayjin: The Deeper Implications for Foreigners in Japan since the 2008 Lehman Shock and the 3-11-2011 Disaster”

Lindsey Sasaki specializes in cross-cultural exchange and training with an emphasis on international migration, ethnic identity, and Latin America. Her research focuses on the Japanese diaspora in Brazil and Peru and the Latin American communities in Japan. In particular, Sasaki attempts to explore how the international flow of young adult Japanese Brazilian students and factory workers to Japan transforms their individual lives and group membership and how ethnicity and identity boundaries shift and are reconstructed under distinct social, economic, and political contexts. As a Fulbright recipient to Peru in 2001, Lindsey researched the relationship among race, culture, identity, and politics focusing on former President Alberto Fujimori’s government and the Japanese-Peruvian community.

DANA BURDE - Assistant Professor of International Education

Monday, April 16, 2012; 12:00-1:00 PM

Before coming to NYU Dana Burde was an Associate Research Scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. Recent publications include: Save the Children's Afghan Refugee Education Program in Balochistan , Pakistan 1995-2005 , Education in Crisis Situations: Mapping the Field , and "International NGOs and best practices: The art of educational lending," in G. Steiner-Khamsi , Global Politics of Educational Borrowing and Lending . Her current research in Afghanistan focuses on whether and how education may protect children from violence in post-conflict societies and improve their life chances. The research is supported by grants from the Spencer Foundation, the US Institute of Peace, the Weikart Family Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.  Specialization in education in emergencies, NGOs, social movements, and education as a tool for social reconstruction in post-conflict regions.