Dr. Estela Bensimon, Professor of Higher Education and Co-director of the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education, will be the keynote speaker at the First Higher Education Inclusion Congress: Affirmative Actions to Ensure Equal Opportunities, open to the public, to be held on Thursday, November 6 at the Auditorium of the University’s Department of Mathematics (Las Sophoras 175, Estación Central), from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
She will address the topic of “Equity Issues and Democracy” in higher education. In addition to her keynote address, Dr. Bensimon will hold meetings and workshops with PAEIP professionals and USACH faculty members, student affairs representatives and researchers on equity issues. The workshops will include invitees from other universities, both in Santiago and from the regions.
Dr. Bensimon travels to Chile under a grant from the Public Affairs Section at the U.S. Embassy to the University of Santiago’s Program for Inclusive Access, Equity and Permanence (PAEIP). The affirmative action policy of PAEIP articulates strategies from different units of the university to increase the number of high achievement public school students from disadvantaged communities by strengthening their personal skills and raising the level of their academic preparation.
Dr. Bensimon’s current research focuses on issues of racial equity in higher education from the perspective of organizational learning and socio-cultural practice theories. She is particularly interested in place-based, practitioner-driven inquiry as a means of organizational change in higher education. Her publications have appeared in numerous journals, and she has authored and co-authored several books.
