Diversity at Reed
Community Reading Project
The primary objective of each Community Reading Project is to support the academic mission of the college. On occasion the Office for Institutional Diversity will host a major scholar or public intellectual whose work we believe will benefit the entire community. Such visits will include a reading component, a public lecture, and when appropriate, a workshop led by the special guest with targeted members of the community. It is our goal that every constituent group within the college be included and encouraged to participate. Each Community Reading Project will also seek to provide an enduring service to Portland’s non-Reed community.
Academic Year 2011–12
Claude Steele, preeminent social psychologist and I. James Quillen Dean of Stanford's School of Education
Claude Steele will discuss his seminal work on stereotype threat and his book Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do. Steele received a BA from Hiram College and a PhD from Ohio State University. He served as the twenty-first provost of Columbia University and has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Education, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. His book Whistling Vivaldi provides an essential roadmap for understanding the link between identity and performance, and how those of us involved in education can make significant strides in mitigating the effects of negative stereotypes in our communities. Co-sponsored by the multicultural resource center and by Reed's Student Senate.
Listen to the lecture.
October 7
First Friday Conversation topic: Claude Steele's 1999 Atlantic article, Thin Ice: Stereotype Threat and Black College Students.
Noon–1, Aspen Room
November 2
Public lecture: "Whistling Vivaldi: How stereotypes affect us and what we can do—in schools and the workplace."
4:30–6 p.m., Eliot Hall chapel
Public reception: 6–7 p.m., Vollum lounge
November 4
First Friday Conversation topic: Claude Steele's Whistling Vivaldi.
Noon–1, Aspen Room