ASSOCIATE DEAN DODGE TO PRESENT AT EDUCATIONAL EQUITY SYMPOSIUM
March 2024 — The Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity at Touro Law Center will host a symposium to examine present and future concerns related to educational equity in the K-12 and higher education settings. “The Promise of Educational Equity” takes place on March 21, 2024 over Zoom. Associate Dean Jeffrey A. Dodge has been asked to speak on the first panel of the day titled, “Equity and Social Dislocation: The Pandemic, The Culture Wars, and Their Impact on Education.”
Dean Dodge’s remarks will focus on legal arguments against social-emotional learning curricula. Inspired by a recent federal lawsuit against the West Shore School District in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, the talk will explore how culture wars in our educational system are now moving beyond social issues to attack the core human feeling of empathy — a cornerstone of inclusion, a foundation for educational equity, a basic expectation of civil and political disagreement, a necessity to appreciate human rights and lives, and the way we coexist. Participation in the symposium will result in an article to be published later by the Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity.
Jeffrey A. Dodge, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Assistant Professor of Law and Joseph H. Goldstein Faculty Scholar at Penn State Dickinson Law, has spent nearly 20 years in legal education. Dean Dodge has broad experience overseeing law school and University-level offices of student services, international programs, admissions, academic success, career services, and more. He has taught and presented on topics in the fields of family law, education law, international human rights, and LGBTQ+ inequality. His scholarship focuses on the intersection of educational access and minoritized communities. Dean Dodge is past chair of the Association of American Law Schools Student Services, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues, and International Legal Exchange sections. He has served on the national diversity committee of the Law School Admissions Council, as an American Bar Association accreditation site evaluator, and a three time director of the CLEO Pre-Law Summer Institute.