SOEHS department announces Dedication to Social Justice and Liberation Award
LAWRENCE – The Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Kansas has announced a new award for a current graduate student within the department who demonstrates a commitment to seek, find and forge the advancement of social justice and liberation through research, practice, teaching, advocacy or activism.
The Dedication to Social Justice and Liberation Award was developed by a team of graduate students who want to create change while supporting current and future graduate students within the department. This purpose of the award is threefold:
- To encourage action (including but not limited to policy, reform, consultation, teaching, research and fundraising) that actively works to dismantle unjust systems;
- To reward the changes that the action has created by spreading awareness; and
- To give appreciation to the individual who exhibited the leadership, creativity and scholastic work connected to that action.
"There have been few reasons to celebrate amid a year marked by a deadly global pandemic and a deadly crisis for persons of color in the United States emanating from longstanding injustices,” said David Hansen, department chair. “This award embodies our department’s collective values of advancing diversity, inclusiveness and equity across all aspects of our education, and I am deeply appreciative of the leadership of our graduate students who envisioned and brought it to fruition.”
The award will be presented to its first recipient at the Lichtenburg Lecture on April 16. More information about the 2021 Lichtenberg Lecture will be announced at a later date.
To be eligible to receive the award, individuals must be enrolled in either a master’s degree or doctoral program in the educational psychology department at KU. Recipients will receive a monetary award, and previous recipients are ineligible for future awards. More information about the Dedication to Social Justice and Liberation Award can be found online here.
The department is part of the top-ranked KU School of Education & Human Sciences. The school prepares educators and human science professionals as leaders.