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Winter Roundtable '99: Confronting Race and Racism in Psychology and Education

For two days in February for the past 16 years, the Winter Roundtable has brought together practitioners, researchers and students to explore cross-cultural issues in psychology and education.
For two days in February for the past 16 years, the Winter Roundtable has brought together practitioners, researchers and students to explore cross-cultural issues in psychology and education.

Conference Director Robert T. Carter, who is a Professor of Psychology and Education at TC, noted that presenters at the conference included speakers who are leading scholars and researchers in the field of cross-cultural psychology and education. The diverse group of speakers, he said, came "from a wide range of disciplines chosen from proposals submitted in the fall."

Topics ranged from asthma in Harlem, to racism and the law, to racial and ethnic identity. The issue of "Confronting Linguicism in Education" was presented by Maria Torres-Guzman, an Associate Professor and Director of the Program in Bilingual/Bicultural Education at TC.

Another feature was the Urban Education Forum. The Forum addressed two issues-the policy retreat in the provision of special services and other programs to minority youth, and the impact, stability and political and social support of after-school education.

An annual feature of the Roundtable is the Janet E. Helms Award for Mentoring and Scholarship in Psychology and Education, which was in its ninth year of presentation. The recipient, Dr. Clayton P. Alderfer, lectured on "The Science and Non-Science of APA's Official Responses to The Bell Curve."

Alderfer was founding Director of Professional Studies for the Yale School of Organization and Management and the Director of Graduate Studies for the doctoral program in Organizational Behavior at Yale. Currently, he is Professor and Director of the Organizational Psychology Program at the Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology. His interests lie in the area of development of human potential, including research on intergroup relations and American race relations.

Janet E. Helms, for whom the award is named, also presented a lecture on "Using Personal-Level Analyses to Study Racial Identity." Helms is a Professor and Co-Director of the Counseling Psychology Program at the University of Maryland, College Park. She has written extensively on the topics of racial identity and cultural influences on assessment and counseling practice.

In addition to speakers, the Roundtable also featured a rmínd information exchange, where employers and job seekers came together. In an effort to bring to light the publication process, the Conference featured a forum entitled "Pathways to Publication," where journal editors and representatives revealed their publishing strategies. Featured publications included Harvard Educational Review, Teachers College Record, The Counseling Psychologist, and the Journal of Black Psychology, among others. Visit the Web site at www.tc. columbia.edu/academic/roundtable.

Published Tuesday, Sep. 18, 2001

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