Learning Sciences Lunch and Learn with Dean Christopher M. Span, “‘I Too Am America’: Memory, Meaning, and 100 Years of Black History Month”
The format for this event will be hybrid with both in-person and virtual options. Our speaker will be presenting in person. However, all students and faculty are invited and encouraged to join us in the GSE Lecture Hall (Room 124) to connect with each other in-person and with the speaker virtually. Lunch will be provided!
For those who cannot attend in person, there is an option to attend virtually via Zoom.
This conversation weaves personal reflection with historical analysis to explore the centennial of Black History Month as both commemoration and a call to action. Drawing Dean Christopher M. Span’s work as a historian of the African American experience, he examine how memory, struggle, and achievement shape the evolving meaning of Black history in public life, classrooms, and communities, while reaffirming the enduring power of the Black presence in the American story.
Bio:
Christopher M. Span is Dean and Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. He is a historian of education whose scholarship focuses on the educational history of African Americans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is the author of multiple books and numerous scholarly articles that have significantly shaped scholarly understanding of Black educational experiences and institutions during this period.
Recordings of the Lunch & Learn presentations are typically made available on the Rutgers GSE YouTube Channel. Be sure to check back regularly for any talks you may have missed or want to see again!