Michele Moses, an associate professor in the University of Colorado at Boulder's School of Education, has been awarded a Fulbright New Century Scholars Award.
Moses was one of 12 people chosen from the United States to participate in the program, which includes 36 people from 25 countries around the world. The team of scholars will focus on the theme "Higher Education in the 21st Century: Access and Equity."
The group will meet three times during the program year to share research, ideas and perspectives about this year's program topic in Buffalo, N.Y.; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Washington, D.C.
This summer Moses will travel to the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil, to collaborate with Brazilian scholars on affirmative action policies and to help the school develop an affirmative action plan.
Afro-Brazilians make up a substantial portion of Brazil's total population, but are still underrepresented in higher education, according to Moses. In recent years some states in Brazil have begun implementing affirmative action programs, and Moses will conduct a comparative analysis of the sociopolitical context surrounding affirmative action policy in both Brazil and the United States.
Moses' research focuses on educational equality and social justice within education policies related to diversity and poverty, such as affirmative action and welfare-to-work. She is the author of the book "Embracing Race: Why We Need Race-Conscious Education Policy." She joined the CU-Boulder faculty in August 2005 and prior to coming to CU-Boulder was a faculty member at Arizona State University.
In its fifth year, the Fulbright New Century Scholars Program brings together scholars and professionals from vastly different backgrounds around the world to focus on a single issue of concern to people worldwide. The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in a partnership with the Council for International Exchange of Scholars.