Journal of Social Issues: Interethnic Contact and Change in the 21st Century The 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education

In 2004, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, yet issues of racial and ethnic integration in schools and colleges remain. The articles in this Issue explore both the processes and implications of interethnic contact in educational settings from elementary schools through universities, and suggest courses of action for educational institutions in the 21st century.

• outlines strategies schools and colleges can use to foster better interethnic relationships on campus
• examines what predominantly White schools and colleges can do in faculty hiring and training and student programs to better address the needs of their students of color
• explores links between peer relationships at school and achievement motivation for students of color
• studies the implications of "English only" policies on the education of immigrant populations
• investigates the struggles of faculty of color at predominantly White institutions.

Sabrina Zirkel, Ph.D. is Associate Professor and Director of the Social Transformation Program at Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center. Her primary research interests are in identity development and change, and especially on how identity is shaped by social structure. Of particular interest in this area is the development of academic and professional identities among women and students of color in adolescence and adulthood. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan.

Gretchen E. Lopez, Ph.D. is Research Director of the Syracuse University Violence Prevention Project, in the School of Education. Her research interests include intergroup relations; race, ethnicity, and education; prosocial behavior and the effectiveness of school and community based programs. She completed her Ph.D. in Social Psychology at the University of Michigan, and previously held faculty positions in Psychology and Africana and Latin American Studies at Colgate University, and in Psychology at Syracuse University.

Lisa M. Brown, Ph.D. is Research Assistant Professor at the NIMH Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention in the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology in the College of Health Professions at the University of Florida. Her research interests include stigma, intergroup relations, and physiological correlates of intergroup processes. She did her undergraduate work at Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges, and her graduate work at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.