Lectures & Colloquia

Albert M. Greenfield Memorial Lectures

The Albert M. Greenfield Memorial Lecture is sponsored by the Albert M. Greenfield Foundation and curated by Penn GSE’s Albert M. Greenfield Professor of Human Relations Dr. John Fantuzzo. The foundation supports activities that carry on the humanitarian vision of the late Mr. Greenfield, who chaired the board of Bankers Securities Corporation and the Philadelphia Planning Commission. View past lectures.

Constance E. Clayton Lecture Series

The Annual Constance E. Clayton Lecture honors Dr. Connie Clayton, who earned her Ed.D. in Educational Administration from Penn GSE in 1981. Dr. Clayton, who began her career in Philadelphia as a teacher, went on to serve as Superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia from 1983 until her retirement in 1993, where she was known for tackling the district’s difficult budget without cutting student services, attracting local businesses to help equip schools with better resources, and establishing schools as the center of their communities. Learn more about the Constance E. Clayton Lecture on the Racial Empowerment Collaborative website.

International Educational Development Program (IEDP) Speaker Series

IEDP offers a year-long International Speakers Series that brings leaders from across the development spectrum. Over recent years, leaders have come from such organizations as the World Bank, Unicef, UNESCO, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Aga Khan Foundation, World Vision, Vanderbilt University and Columbia University Teachers College.

Nessa Wolfson Colloquium

The Nessa Wolfson Colloquium is an annual event to honor the memory of Nessa Wolfson, the founder of the Language and Literacy in Education group at GSE, and to welcome new and returning students to the Educational Linguistics Division each fall. It is the longest continuously-running colloquium series at Penn GSE. 

Nessa Wolfson earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics at Penn and was lecturer, then professor of Education at GSE from 1976 up to her passing in 1990. She was founding director of the Programs in Educational Linguistics, TESOL, and Intercultural Communication, and also founding chair of the Language in Education Division (now the Language and Literacy in Education Group), beginning in 1983 until her death. Well-known and respected in the field of TESOL and sociolinguistics, both nationally and internationally, she was as well the first tenured woman professor at GSE.

After her death, which came too soon for both her family and her professional colleagues, her husband Harvey Wolfson and the Language in Education Division created the Nessa Wolfson Colloquium to recognize her scholarly and program-building contributions and keep her memory alive at GSE. The concept of the NWC is to bring to ELX and GSE each year a distinguished scholar in Nessa's field -- TESOL and sociolinguistics -- to give a talk and meet informally with students. Emphasis is placed on scholars who knew and mentored Nessa, who worked with her as colleagues, who were her own students, who draw inspiration from her research and writings, or whose work represents the same high standards of originality and vision as hers. 

Visiting Scholars Speaker Series: Diverse Perspectives in Education

Each year, a number of scholars from all over the country are invited to Penn GSE to give lectures and share their research with faculty and students, as part of the “Visiting Faculty Scholars” series. Events typically include the research presentations by leading scholars followed by group discussion, and are open to all faculty, staff, and students. Read more about the Visiting Scholars of Speaker series.

Steven S. Goldberg and Jolley Bruce Christman Lecture in Education Law

The biennial Steven S. Goldberg and Jolley Bruce Christman Lecture in Education Law provides a platform for students, alumni, faculty, staff, and the broader community to learn from some of the most pressing issues in the field today and work towards increasing equity and social justice in education.