Keynote Speaker – Dr. Shaun Harper
Shaun R. Harper is on the faculty in the Graduate School of Education, Africana Studies, and Gender Studies at University of Pennsylvania. He is also Director of the Penn GSE Grad Prep Academy and a faculty fellow in the Penn Institute for Urban Research. Harper maintains an active research agenda that examines racism and gender disparities in higher education, Black male college access and achievement, and college student engagement.
Dr. Harper has published nine books and more than 75 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and other academic publications. He has also delivered over 40 keynote addresses and presented more than 125 research papers, workshops, and symposia at national education conferences. Some of his books include:
- Introduction to American Higher Education (Routledge, 2011);
- Student Engagement in Higher Education: Theoretical Perspectives and Practical Approaches for Diverse Populations (Routledge, 2009);
- College Men and Masculinities (Jossey-Bass, 2010);
- Student Services: A Handbook for the Profession (Jossey-Bass, 2011).
His newest single-authored book, Exceeding Expectations: Black Male Achievers and Insights into College Success, is being published by Harvard University Press. The Journal of Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, Teachers College Record, American Behavioral Scientist, and many other well-regarded journals have published his research.
Several higher education professional associations have praised Professor Harper’s scholarship, including the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (2004 Melvene D. Hardee Dissertation of the Year Award; 2010 Outstanding Contribution to Research Award); American Educational Research Association (2010 Early Career Award, Division G); American College Personnel Association (2005 Emerging Scholar Award; 2006 Annuit Coeptis Award; 2011 Harry Cannon Outstanding Professional Award); National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics (2008 Excellence in Research Award); and the Association for the Study of Higher Education (2008 Early Career Award). In September 2007, Harper was featured on the cover of Diverse Issues in Higher Education for his National Black Male College Achievement Study, the largest-ever empirical study of Black male undergraduates. He has received more than $800,000 in research grants from the Lumina Foundation for Education, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and other sources to fund his research.
Harper earned his bachelor’s degree in Education from Albany State, a historically Black university in Georgia, and his Ph.D. in higher education administration from Indiana University.