April 2016

Marta Tienda, a professor of sociology and public affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, has been selected by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) to present the 2016 Brown Lecture in Education Research. The lecture will take place October 20 at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.

“Dr. Tienda is a leading scholar on immigration, population diversification, and poverty and the roles they play in access to education,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “Her work examining education equality is an ideal match for the goals of the Brown Lecture.”

The Annual Brown Lecture in Education Research illuminates the important role of research in advancing understanding of equality and equity in education.

Tienda has authored or co-authored over 200 scientific papers and chapters about U.S. racial and ethnic inequality, international migration, variations in family structure and reproductive behavior, and access to higher education. Her current research focuses on the lifecycle timing of migration and the implications of adolescent romantic relationships for emotional and physical wellbeing. She presented the Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture at the AERA 2013 Annual Meeting.

Tienda is the Maurice P. During ’22 Professor of Demographic Studies at Princeton University and former director of the Office of Population Research. She is a past president of the Population Association of America, an AERA Fellow, and a fellow of the National Academy of Education, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Tienda led research on the effects of the “Top 10% Rule,” a Texas bill created as a means to avoid an appeals court case banning the use of affirmative action. She is a member of the White House Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, the National Research Council Panel on Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration, and the Mellon Foundation Advisory Committee on Our Common Interests.

Now in its 13th year, the Brown Lecture was inaugurated by AERA in 2004 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court took scientific research into account in issuing its landmark ruling.

The Brown Lecture Selection Committee included AERA President Vivian L. Gadsden, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education; AERA past-President Jeannie Oakes, University of California, Los Angeles; AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine; AERA Director of Professional Development and Diversity Officer George L. Wimberly; Social Justice Action Committee (SJAC) Chair  Kofi Lomotey, Western Carolina University; and two additional SJAC members, Lisa Bass, North Carolina State University, and Denice Ward Hood, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.