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The Supreme Court, the Affirmative Action Decision, and the Future

Tuesday, September 26
12:00pm Pacific Time | 3:00pm Eastern Time
Event Details
The big Supreme Court decision—do you understand what it means for higher ed? For diversity? For you?

Join NPR’s Robert Siegel in a timely and enlightening interview with The New York Times’s Emily Bazelon, Jay Caspian Kang, and Mount Holyoke’s president Danielle Holley as they dive deep into the Supreme Court’s recent decision on affirmative action. This discussion will explore the intricacies and potential consequences of the court’s ruling on affirmative action policies in America. We’ll provide an analysis of the ramifications for the ethnic makeup of universities, secondary schools, and more. We’ll examine concerns voiced by Jewish, Asian American, Black, Latino, and other communities, especially in light of histories of discrimination and exclusion.

Cost: Free
Guest: Emily Bazelon

Emily Bazelon is a staff writer at The New York Times Magazine, The Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law at Yale Law School, and a co-host of Slate’s Political Gabfest, a popular weekly podcast. She is the author of two national bestsellers published by Penguin Random House: Charged, about the power of prosecutors, and Sticks and Stones, about how to prevent bullying. In 2020, Charged won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the current interest category. Emily was also a 2023 National Magazine Award finalist for a piece in the public interest. Before joining the Times Magazine in 2014, Emily was a writer and editor for nine years at Slate. She is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School.

Guest: Jay Caspian Kang

Jay Caspian Kang is a staff writer for The New Yorker, an Emmy-nominated documentary film director, and the author of “The Loneliest Americans.” Prior to coming to The New Yorker, he was an opinion writer for The New York Times. His work has appeared in The New York Review of Books, “This American Life,” and the Times Magazine. His new film, “American Son,” will première in 2023, as part of ESPN’s “30 for 30” series. He lives in Northern California with his family.

Guest: Danielle R. Holley

Danielle R. Holley is the twentieth president of Mount Holyoke College. A noted legal scholar and educator, Holley served as Dean of the School of Law at Howard University (2014 – 2023) prior to joining Mount Holyoke. She holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Holley also previously served as a law clerk to Judge Carl E. Steward on the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Host: Robert Siegel

Prior to his retirement from NPR in 2018, Robert Siegel spent 31 years hosting the daily newsmagazine program ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Before that he was head of news and information programming at the network and, from 1979 to 1983, NPR‘s first news staffer stationed overseas, in London. Today, Siegel is a literary contributor to Moment Magazine and host of the monthly web panel Global Connections which is also seen on the cable channel JBS, the Jewish Broadcasting Service.