Michael Kearney Memorial Lecture

Thursday, March 21
Galleria II
3:30 pm - 5:20 pm 

Keynote Speaker: Yolanda T. Moses (UCR)
Commentators: Faye V. Harrison (U Illinois) and Deborah A. Thomas (U Penn) 

The Lecture celebrates the life and work of Michael Kearney, late of the University of California, Riverside.  Each year, the Lecture Committee selects an outstanding scholar whose presentation will explore the intersection of three themes - migration, human rights, transnationalism. These three themes were central to Prof. Kearney's scholarship. They were first explored in his doctoral research (“The Winds of Ixtepeji”).  His subsequent research led to a greater involvement in the formulation of public policy, and the commitment to use his discipline to understand and assist the development of indigenous migrant organizations.

Yolanda T. Moses, PhD- (University of California, Riverside). Moses served as President of the American Anthropological Association, Chair of the Board of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, Past President of City University of New York/ The City College (1993-1999), and President of the American Association for Higher Education (2000-2003). She currently serves as Professor of Anthropology and the Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Excellence at the University of California, Riverside. Dr. Moses’ research focuses on the broad question of the origins of social inequality in complex societies through the use of comparative ethnographic and survey methods.  She has explored gender and class disparities in the Caribbean, East Africa and in the United States. More recently, her research has focused on issues of diversity and change in universities and colleges in the United States, India, Europe and South Africa. 

She is currently involved with several national higher education projects with the National Council for Research on Women, Campus Women Lead and The Women of Color Research Collective. In addition, she is Chair of the National Advisory Board of a multi-year national public education project sponsored by the American Anthropological Association and funded by NSF and the Ford Foundation on Race and Human Variation.