Conference explores civic and multicultural education in minority settings

What are the benefits of, and obstacles to, civic and multicultural education in segregated and integrated schools? The theoretical and practical exploration of these questions has been the focus of recent scholarly and professional interest for Radcliffe Institute fellow and Boston public school teacher Meira Levinson, whose significant philosophical and real-world contributions in the arena of education reform earned her the title "Young Scholar" for 2003.

This year's Young Scholar conference on Saturday, March 29, in Cornell's Statler Hotel, brings together selected members of the Cornell community with invited faculty members from Ithaca College, Wells College and Syracuse University to participate in a discussion of two papers submitted by Levinson. Levinson was selected as Young Scholar in 2002 after a national and worldwide competition sponsored by Cornell's Program on Ethics and Public Life (EPL).

Levinson's papers, "Separate But Equal? Segregated Schools and the Fragmentation of Civic Narrative" and "Kurt Cobain vs. Master P: A Critical Taxonomy of Multicultural Education," will be the focus of the daylong conference

Comment on Levinson's work will be offered by Robert Fullinwider, senior research scholar at the University of Maryland Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, and Lawrence Blum, professor of philosophy and Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Education at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Levinson, Fullinwider and Blum will be joined by the invited scholars, who will have an opportunity to participate in an exchange of ideas, which is central to the Young Scholar conference.

Levinson holds a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Yale University and a Ph.D. in politics from Oxford University. Her doctoral dissertation was the basis for the well-received book The Demands of Liberal Education, published in 1999 by Oxford University Press. In addition to her book, which recently was released in paperback, She also has published a number of articles and book chapters while teaching in the Atlanta and now Boston public schools. Her selection as this year's Young Scholar includes a $1,000 award and culminates in this weekend at Cornell.

The Young Scholars Program, in its 10th year, is an integral part of the EPL, a universitywide academic initiative that promotes systematic study of the complex -- and inescapably ethical -- issues of public life.

Directed by Cornell Professor Michele Moody-Adams, the EPL program fulfills its mission through teaching courses focused on ethics, assisting faculty with the integration of ethics into courses in other disciplines, and developing connections between Cornell and the broader public world through lectures, colloquia and conferences, such as the Young Scholar weekend.