University Lecture Series Fall 2023 - The State of Affirmative Action

This lecture will define affirmative action and discuss the impacts of this policy using historical, legal and educational lenses. What has the impact of affirmative action been on our democracy thus far?

Dr. Peniel Joseph
Does the end of Affirmative Action offer America an opportunity to finally come to terms with the nation’s original sin of racial slavery? How the history of why Affirmative Action came to be might help us shape a more just future.

Professor Lisa R. Eskow
Professor Eskow will discuss the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Presidents & Fellows of Harvard College/University of North Carolina, focusing on the reasoning of the majority opinion, as well as the perspectives of justices who wrote separate concurrences and dissents. She will highlight justices’ conflicting views of the Court’s precedent regarding consideration of race in educational settings and justices’ disagreements over the meaning of Equal Protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Dr. Liliana Garces, JD
Dr. Garces will provide insights from her research on race-conscious admissions policies in higher education. She will discuss what the U.S. Supreme Court’s most recent decision on the topic represents, and why it requires all of us to be “racially literate” in our policies and practices.