Social Sciences
10.8.08Conference will focus on problems of inequality in education
Social scientists and philosophers will convene Oct. 17-18 at the Arrillaga Alumni Center at Stanford to examine issues related to educational equality, including charter schools, the achievement gap between black and white students and the relationship between economic inequality and inequality in schooling.
Educators say pushback against progress continues racial split in U.S.
40 years ago, the Kerner Commission Report helped breed a new political and social will to address issues like poverty, racism and education inequality. But educators and policy experts who gathered last week at Stanford said much of that will has eroded and, with it, many achievements that peaked in the country's schools by the mid-1970s.
New executive director for Haas Center announced, expected to start in April
The Haas Center for Public Service has announced that Thomas Schnaubelt, dean for community engagement and civic learning at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, will be the center's new executive director, starting in April 2009.
Cory Booker recalls 'gut checks' on road to becoming Newark public servant
After studying at Stanford, Oxford and Yale and racking up what his father called "more degrees than the month of July," Cory Booker found himself in an unlikely spot: living in a rundown high rise in one of the worst neighborhoods in Newark, N.J.
New York Times editor appointed Stanford scholar, university adviser
Philip Taubman, reporter and editor at the New York Times for nearly 30 years and an expert on national security issues, has been appointed as a consulting professor at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) and as an adviser to the campus on university affairs issues.
Advisers for Obama, McCain offer views at economic policy talk
With John McCain and Barack Obama throwing political punches over how to deal with the country's financial crisis, you might think a face-off between a pair of their economic advisers would get ugly.
Law school votes to drop letter grades; revamped system begins this quarter
First- and second-year Law School students will be working for honors instead of A's this year. In a move intended to ease student competition, make grading more fair and eliminate "class shopping," Stanford Law School faculty voted to replace letter grades with a system that doles out honors, passes, restricted credit or no credit.
Longtime curator at Hoover dead at 85
Agnes F. Peterson, who helped acquire some of the Hoover Institution's most valuable archival collections during her four decades as a reference librarian and curator, died Sept. 1 of heart failure. She was 85.
Role of race, class, faith, gender in 2008 election is focus of free course
The Program in African and African American Studies and the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity is offering a special one-time course on the upcoming presidential election.
Fifth annual conference addressing student stress set for Friday and Saturday
The fifth annual "Stressed-Out Students" conference will open at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 26 in Dinkelspiel Auditorium with a panel discussion featuring nationally renowned child development experts and authors. The event, which is free and open to the public, will feature:
Tom Brokaw to moderate Oct. 11 roundtable on leadership
Leaders and entrepreneurs in the fields of government, law, economic development and philanthropy will participate in the third annual Roundtable at Stanford from 9:15 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 11, in Maples Pavilion.
Thinking Twice: Iraq
Today's issue of Stanford Report features the debut of a monthly column in which a pair of Stanford scholars from distinct disciplines address the same subject.
Newark, N.J., mayor, alum Cory Booker returns to campus for Thursday talk
Cory Booker, the Newark, N.J., mayor whose first and bruising bid for the office was chronicled in the Oscar-nominated Street Fight, will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25, in Cubberley Auditorium.
Poll shows some Democrats' racial views could hurt Obama in close election
A poll conducted in partnership with Stanford suggests that Barack Obama could lose a close election to John McCain because of some voters' feelings about race.
Using everyday language to teach science may help students learn, study finds
According to a recent study, students who learned the basic concepts of photosynthesis in "everyday English" before learning the scientific terms for the phenomenon fared much better on tests than students taught the traditional way.
