Kevin Favor, a U. of I. alumnus and a psychologist, will be among the speakers at the seventh annual College of Education Graduate Student Conference on March 11.
Kevin Favor, a U. of I. alumnus and a psychologist, and Khalid el-Hakim, the founder and the curator of the Black History 101 Mobile Museum, will be among the speakers at the seventh annual College of Education Graduate Student Conference on March 11.
“Transformative Scholarship, Schooling and Society” is the theme of this year’s conference, which also will feature a display of artifacts from the museum’s traveling collection.
Favor, who earned a doctoral degree in educational psychology at the U. of I. in 1987, will be honored with a Distinguished Alumni Award at an awards brunch on March 12.
A specialist in minority mental health, Favor is certified by the American Psychological Association in the treatment of substance abuse and has served as a panel member for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Science Foundation and the Ford Fellowship Foundation Program. Favor currently is a professor of psychology and human services at Lincoln University.
Other distinguished alumni to be honored at the awards program include Christine Adrian, an award-winning social studies teacher at Champaign’s Jefferson Middle School; Elise Darwish, the chief academic officer of Aspire Public Schools, one of the first charter school management organizations in the U.S.; educator and photojournalist Gary Swanson, the chief executive officer and president of D’image Studios LLC; and Brandon Wright, an attorney who practices school law, with a focus on special education issues.
El-Hakim, a former teacher with Detroit Public Schools and a doctoral student in the U. of I. department of curriculum and instruction, has a collection of more than 7,000 artifacts, including slave chains, a bill of sale for a slave woman and her children, a copy of director Spike Lee’s script for his 1992 movie “Malcolm X” and many original documents signed by prominent African-Americans, including Booker T. Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.
“We’re all very excited to have the museum as part of this year’s conference,” said Shana Riddick, one of the conference co-chairs and a doctoral candidate in the department of education policy, organization and leadership. “I have followed Mr. el-Hakim’s work with the museum for some time now. The audiences around the country that he is able to reach, as a result of the museum’s mobility, is amazing. He presents exhibits that showcase historical and contemporary aspects of black life and culture in the U.S. These are lived experiences and moments in time that many of us would not have such tangible access to otherwise.”
The artifacts from the Black History 101 Mobile Museum’s collection will be available for viewing by conference participants only in Rooms 15-17 of the Education Building, 1310 S. Sixth St., from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. the day of the conference.
In addition, el-Hakim will give a presentation about the exhibit, titled “The 5th Element: Using Hip Hop Artifacts to Teach Black History,” at 4:30 p.m., also in rooms 15-17.
The schedule for the free conference is available online. Registration also is online.
