Plenary Session:
Invited Address by Michelle Fine, PhD—

Taking It to the Streets: What Motivates Young People During Times of Great Inequity (2206)

Friday, Aug. 7, 1:00–1:50 p.m., Room 717A

Michelle Fine, PhD, is Distinguished Professor of Social Psychology, Women’s Studies, and Urban Education at the City University of New York Graduate Center. Lewinian with a twist, Dr. Fine’s work braids social psychological theory with feminist and critical race theory, participatory methods, and strong commitments to social change. She has authored or coauthored numerous classics within justice studies, including books and articles on high school dropouts, women with disabilities, the missing discourse of desire in sex education classrooms, Muslim American youth, participatory-action research methods, and the impact of college on women in prison. As a much sought-after expert witness in gender and race discrimination education cases, Dr. Fine’s research and testimony have been influential in the victories of women who sued for access to the Citadel Military Academy and in Williams v. California, a class-action lawsuit for urban youth of color denied adequate education in California. Most recently, Dr. Fine and a participatory-action research team, including women from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, published Changing Minds: The Impact of College on Women in Prison, which is nationally recognized as the primary empirical basis for the contemporary college-inprison movement. National and international recognition of her work is evident in a sampling of recent awards that include the 2008 Social Justice Award from the Cross Cultural Winter Roundtable, the 2007 Willystine Goodsell Award from the American Educational Research Association, the 2005 First Annual Morton Deutsch Award, an honorary Doctoral Degree for Education and Social Justice from Bank Street College in 2002, and the Carolyn Sherif Award from APA in 2001.

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