HGSE Announces Fall 2013 Askwith Forums

The Harvard Graduate School of Education is pleased to announce its fall 2013 Askwith Forums, a series of public lectures dedicated to discussing challenges facing education, sharing new knowledge, and generating spirited conversation. Highlights this fall will include a discussion about online education with edX President Anant Agarwal; mindfulness in education with Jon Kabat Zinn, founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society; and a look at The App Generation with Professor Howard Gardner and Katie Davis, Ed.M.’02, Ed.M.’09, Ed.D.’11, assistant professor at the University of Washington.

The Askwith Forums provide an opportunity for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to share their work, talk with one another, and advance proven practices that will improve learning opportunities for all children.

September 16: Bringing the Civil Rights Struggle to Life for Today’s Students with Professor Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Harvard Law School and Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences; Tonya Lewis Lee, co-producer, The Watsons Go to Birmingham; Professor Robert Selman; Randy Testa, Ed.M.’79, Ed.D.’90, vice president, Education and Professional Development, Walden Media, LLC. Moderated by Senior Lecturer Joe Blatt. Introduced by Dean James Ryan. 5 – 8 p.m.

October 1: edX: Reinventing Education with edX President Anant Agarwal, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Introduced by Dean James Ryan. 5:30 – 7 p.m.

October 8: Innovations in Teaching with Professor Robert Kegan and Associate Professor Meira Levinson. Introduced by Dean James Ryan. 5:30 – 7 p.m. This event is part of Teaching and Learning Week at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

October 16: Jon Kabat Zinn: Mindfulness in Education with Jon Kabat Zinn, professor of medicine emeritus at University of Massachusetts Medical School and founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society and the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic. Welcome by Professor Jerry Murphy. Introduced by Metta McGarvey, Ed.D.’10. 5:30 – 7 p.m.

October 21: The App Generation with Professor Howard Gardner and Katie Davis, Ed.M.’02, Ed.M.’09, Ed.D.’11, assistant professor at the University of Washington. 7 – 8:30 p.m.

October 23: Transformative Change in American Schools with Michele Cahill, vice president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York national programs. Introduced by Professor Paul Reville. 5:30 – 7 p.m.

October 29: Harvard's Crimson Summer Academy – A Path to College for Low-Income Students with Clayton Spencer, president of Bates College and founder of the Crimson Summer Academy. 5:30 – 7 p.m.

November 13: School Reform from the Outside In with Professor Paul Reville; Wendy Puriefoy, director of education of Barr Foundation; and Dan Challener, president of the Public Education Foundation. 5:30 – 7 p.m.

All forums are held in Askwith Hall at the Longfellow building on Appian Way in Cambridge, Mass. Forums are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted on the calendar description. Askwith Forums also will be live streamed on the HGSE website and archived events can be viewed on the Harvard Education YouTube channel. For an opportunity to win reserved seating tickets to Askwith Forums, please like HarvardEducation on Facebook or follow HGSE on Twitter.

The Askwith Forums were established in 1998 by the children and grandchildren of New York City public-relations consultant, writer, and publishing executive Herbert Askwith A.B.’(19)07.

Prominent speakers have included U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, historian Noam Chomsky, Children Defense Fund Founder Marian Wright Edelman, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Colin Powell, pop singer Lady Gaga, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, and Khan Academy Founder and Director Sal Khan.