About Askwith Forums
The Askwith Forum is a series of public lectures at the Harvard Graduate School of Education featuring a wide range of topics, including early childhood, civic and moral engagement, expanded learning models, educating for human rights, and international education among others. Topics are initiated by faculty, students, and alumni, and aim to address the highest-priority challenges facing education.
The forums highlight leaders in the field to share new knowledge and generate spirited conversation, and 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. Prominent speakers have included U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, noted academic Noam Chomsky, Children's Defense Fund Founder Marian Wright Edelman, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Khan Academy Founder and Director Sal Khan.
The forums are free and open to the public, and are a vibrant part of the HGSE community. Audiences generally include community members, local educators, and a wide range of professionals and parents with a keen interest in improving education, as well as HGSE faculty, staff, and students. In most cases, the events are live-streamed, recorded, and made available online. Askwith Forums bring over 4,000 people to campus annually and engage over 6,000 online.
The Askwith Forum was established in 1998 by the children and grandchildren of Herbert Askwith AB'(19)07, a noted New York City public-relations consultant, writer, and publishing executive.
