Dr. Carlos E.
Cortés is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of
California, Riverside. Since 1990 he has served on the summer
faculty of the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education, since
1995 has served on the faculty of the Summer Institute for
Intercultural Communication, and since 1999 has been an adjunct
faculty member of the Federal Executive Institute.
Two of his most recent books, The
Children Are Watching: How the Media Teach about Diversity
and The Making -- and Remaking -- of a Multiculturalist,
were published by Teachers College Press, while he is co-author
of the Houghton Mifflin Social Studies series and senior
consultant for the McDougal Littell World History series.
Cortés serves as Creative/Cultural Advisor for Nickelodeon's
Peabody-award-winning children's television series, "Dora the
Explorer," and its sequel, "Go, Diego, Go!," and he also
performs his one-person, autobiographical play, A
Conversation with Alana: One Boy's Multicultural Rite of Passage.
His recent honors include the National Association of Student
Personnel Administrators' Outstanding Contribution to Higher
Education Award, the California Association for Bilingual
Education's Inspiration Award, and the University of California,
Riverside's Emeritus Professor of the Year Award.
The recipient of two book awards, Cortés'
publications include Three Perspectives on Ethnicity,
Gaúcho Politics in Brazil, and Beyond Language: Social
and Cultural Factors in Schooling Language Minority Students,
while he has edited three major book series, totaling 106
volumes, on Latinos in the United States. He also received his
university's Distinguished Teaching Award and Faculty Public
Service Award, the Distinguished California Humanist Award, the
American Society for Training and Development's National
Multicultural Trainer of the Year Award, and the California
Council for the Social Studies' Hilda Taba Award, and was
selected by the Smithsonian Institution to be a Public Lecturer.
A
consultant to many government agencies, school systems,
universities, mass media, private businesses, and other
organizations, Cortés has lectured widely throughout the United
States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Australia on the
implications of diversity for education, government, and private
business. He has also written film and television
documentaries, appeared as guest host on the PBS national
television series, "Why in the World?," and is the featured
presenter on the Video Journal of Education's training video,
"Diversity in the Classroom."
*
Special Performance *
A
CONVERSATION WITH ALANA:
ONE BOY'S MULTICULTURAL RITE OF PASSAGE
written
and performed by
Carlos E. Cortés
Director -- Bethany Kraemer
Theatrical Consultant -- Dawn Davies
"A Conversation with Alana" is a new
one-hour, one-person autobiographical play written and
performed by Carlos E. Cortés, Professor Emeritus of
History at the University of California, Riverside. In
his play, Cortés presents his story of growing up as a
young man of mixed ancestry in racially segregated,
religiously divided early post-World War II Kansas City,
Missouri. The son of a Mexican Catholic immigrant
father and an American-born Jewish mother, whose parents
came from Austria and Ukraine, Cortés had to learn to
navigate Kansas City's rigid racial, ethnic, and
religious fault lines, while simultaneously dealing with
the internal conflicts of his own divided family.
The first 500 conference participants to arrive will receive a
free copy of "The Children Are Watching:
How the Media Teach about Diversity."
Dr.
Cortés
will be doing a Book Signing.
Please direct all program content inquiries about the
conference to
Dr. William A. Howe, Connecticut
State Department of Education, e-mail: william.howe@ct.gov
Important Message:
"There was a last minute change to the conference date
and we realized too late that Yom Kippur begins at
sundown on Oct. 8, 2008. We recognize how important this
day is on the Jewish calendar. The timing is extremely
regrettable. We offer our apologies for any
difficulties. Please consider attending and staying for
as late as you can. We modified the agenda so that the
second session ends at 3 pm."
Keynote Speaker:
