The James P. Curtis Distinguished Lecture Series was created by the Capstone Education Society to bring an educator or public figure to the campus each year to lecture about contemporary education issues. It was named in honor of Dr. James P. Curtis, a faculty member in the College for 23 years. During his service as Professor of Administration and Educational Leadership and Assistant Dean of the Bureau of Educational Services and Research, Curtis influenced the lives and careers of countless students who have become prominent educators.
This lecture is held in conjunction with the annual Southeastern Universities Graduate Research Symposium held in the spring.
- Dr. Jennifer Randall, Ain’t Oughta Be in the Dictionary: Getting to Justice by Dismantling Anti-Black Literacy Assessment Practices (2022)
- Dr. Juanita Johnson-Bailey, A Scholarly Journey to Autoethnography: A Way to Understand, Survive, and Resist (2021)
- (2020)
- Dr. Jonathan Plucker, Excellence Gaps in Alabama (2019)
- Mr. Curtis Chin, Tested (2016)
- Dr. Harry Brighouse, What Should Schools Do and How Should They Do It? (2015)
- Dr. Carol Lee, Re-Visiting the Schoolhouse Door: Complexities of Race, Ethnicity, Immigrant Status and Class for Educational Access and Opportunity in Our Democracy (2013, fall)
- Dr. Joy Davis, Gifted Education in Culturally Diverse Populations (2013, spring)
- Dr. David Imig, Making the EdD the Degree of Choice (2012)
- Dr. Shane Lopez, Hope, Engagement, and Well Being (2011)
- Dr. Robert Granger, Frontline Practice: The Missing Ingredient in the NIH/IES Approach (2010)
- Dr. David G. Bronner, Leadership: Where Alabama is and is going (2009)
- Dr. James Anderson, History of Education (2008)
- Dr. Sharon Robinson, Teaching: Building a World of Learners (2007)
- Kathryn Tucker Windham and Joseph Sobol (2006)
- Dr. William Sanders, Beyond No Child Left Behind with Value-Added Assessment: Teachers Make a Difference (2005)
- Dr. Joseph Renzulli, Expanding the Conception of Giftedness To Include Co-Cognitive Traits and To Promote Social Capital (2004)
- Mr. Batt Burns, Ireland’s Oral Tradition as a Dynamic Teaching Tool (2003)
- Dr. Howard Gardner, From Multiple Intelligences to Good Work (2002)
- Dr. Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Outputs, Outcomes, and Results: The New Orthodoxy in Teacher Education (2001)
- Dr. David C. Berliner, The Silence of the Lambs: Education and the Business Community (2000)
- Dr. Claire Ellen Weinstein, Strategic Learning, Strategic Teaching for the Twenty-first Century (1999)
- Dr. John I. Goodlad, Education for Democratic Character (1998)
- Dr. Patricia A. Wasley, Essential Connections: Kids and School Reform (1997)
- Mr. Juan Williams, Education, the Leading Edge of Politics: Looking Toward the Twenty-first Century (1996)
- Dr. Donald P. Ely, Technology is the Answer, But What is the Question? (1995)
- Dr. William W. Purkey, Creating Inviting Schools for the Twenty-first Century (1994)
- Dr. Phillip C. Schlechty, Schools of the Twenty-first Century (1993)
- Dr. Diane S. Ravitch, Standards and Testing in American Education (1992)
- Dr. John Henry Martin, Writing to Read (1991)