Countering the Culture Wars You Didn't Expect: Education Journalism, SEED, and School Moms Called to Service
Date: Thursday, May 2, 2024 • 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. ET
Location: Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center, Room 413
Join the Wellesley Centers for Women to celebrate the release of School Moms: Parent Activism, Partisan Politics, and the Battle for Public Education, by WCW Writer-in-Residence Laura Pappano.
For well over a century, public schools have been a non-partisan gathering place and vital center of civic life in America—but something has changed. In School Moms, veteran education journalist Pappano explores the story of how public schools across the country have become ground zero in a cultural and political war as the far-right have made efforts to seek power over school boards. Combining on-the-ground reporting with research and expert interviews, School Moms takes a hard look at where these battles are happening, what is at stake, and why it matters for the future of our schools.
WCW Executive Director Layli Maparyan will moderate an eye-opening conversation among Pappano, SEED Co-Director Gail Cruise-Roberson, SEED Senior Advisor Emmy Howe, and Wellesley College Student Laila Brustin ’25, all of whom contributed to research for the book.
Pappano will share stories from her reporting, including the hair-raising experience of attending a Moms for Liberty conference. Cruise-Roberson and Howe will talk about how SEED, a WCW program that creates conversational communities that drive change, has been received differently the past several years and what they see as the way forward. And Brustin will share what she learned from delving into campaign finance filings and local school board races as part of the reporting for the book.
Signed books will be available for purchase.
Panelists:
- Laura Pappano, Writer-in-Residence, Wellesley Centers for Women
- Gail Cruise-Roberson, Co-Director, National SEED Project
- Emmy Howe, M.Ed., Senior Advisor, National SEED Project
- Laila Brustin, Wellesley College Class of 2025
- Moderated by: Layli Maparyan, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Wellesley Centers for Women, Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College
