UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A forum focused on the experiences of teachers, administrators and college leaders during the Civil Rights Movement will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, on the University Park campus. The forum will feature Penn State alumnus Derrick Alridge, professor of education and an affiliate faculty member in the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies at the University of Virginia, and founding director of UVA’s Center for Race and Public Education in the South.
Alridge will discuss his “Teachers in the Movement” project, which includes oral history interviews with elementary, secondary and university teachers and educators about their participation in and efforts during the Civil Rights Movement. His aim is to learn and help others understand how their pedagogy, curricula and community work were instrumental forms of activism that influenced the movement. He also will explain the contemporary applications of the lessons learned through these oral histories.
Faculty, staff and students from all disciplines who have an interest in the topic are encouraged to attend. The event, which is co-hosted by Penn State’s Center for the Study of Higher Education and Center for Education and Civil Rights, is free and registration is not required.
Alridge will be visiting the University Park campus as one of 16 Penn State alumni who were selected to receive the 2019 Alumni Fellow Award, the most prestigious award given by the Penn State Alumni Association. He earned his doctoral degree from the Penn State College of Education in educational theory and policy in 1997.