Konopka Lectureships

The Gisela Konopka Lectureship was established with the support of Dr .Konopka’s friends and colleagues to honor her and her achievements on the occasion of her retirement after 30 years of contribution to the University of Minnesota. It carries on the important, unique tradition, of integrating theory and practice and humanizing services for children and youth.

26th Konopka Lecturer ­– Dr. Pedro Noguera
What Does it Take To Leave No Child Behind?
On February 13, 2007 Dr. Pedro Noguera challenged an auditorium full of youth advocates to focus their attention on community-based approaches to education challenges. Read or listen to Dr. Noguera's remarks.

What Does it Take to Leave No Child Behind? – Dr. Pedro Noguera

About Dr. Noguera
Pedro Noguera is a professor in the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University, Director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, and co-Director of the Institute for the Study of Globalization and Education in Metropolitan Settings.  Dr. Noguera’s published books include:
City Schools and the American Dream; Unfinished Business: Closing the Racial Achievement Gap in our Schools; and Beyond Resistance! Youth Activism and Community Change. For free access to a number of Dr. Noguera’s articles, go to: http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/noguera.html

Past Konopka Lectures

Humanizing Institutions that Serve Youth
Jan Berry
Executive Director
Freeport West
Special Lecture

Pathways From Childhood Aggression to Youth Violence
James Garbarino, Ph.D., Professor of Human Development
Co-Director of the Family Life Development Center
Cornell University
May, 1999

Taming the Tempest of Teen Pregnancy
Henry W. Foster, Jr., MD
September, 1998

Rosa Lee Cunningham and The Plight of the American Underclass
Leon Dash, Pulitzer Prize winner reporter
Washington Post
May, 1997

Return to Top 

They're Our Kids: They're Everyone's Kids
New Pathways & Partnerships for Kids
Judith Smith Musik
Ounce of Prevention, Chicago
May, 1996

Preventing Youth Problems & Promoting Youth Development: Competing Priorities or Inseparable Goals?
Karen Pittman
International Youth Foundation
May, 1995

Doing Right By Our Kids: A Case Study in the Perils of Making Policy on Television Violence
Patricia Wald, Circuit Court Judge
US Court of Appeals, Wash DC
May, 1994

Activating Communities to Reduce Risks for Health and Behavior Problems
J. David Hawkins, Ph.D.
University of Washington, Social Development Research Group
May, 1993

Growing Up Female: How Stormy and Stressful is the Transition to Adolescence?
Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, Senior Research Scientist
Educational Testing Service, Princeton NJ
May, 1990

African-American Families & Children-at-Risk
Andrew Billingsley, Professor and Chair, Department of Family and Community Development
University of Maryland
May, 1989

Return to Top

Raising Children Who Will Run The World
Dr. Leon Chestang, Dean of Social Work
Wayne State University
May, 1988

Adolescent Development Reconsidered
Carol Gilligan, Professor of Education
Harvard University
May, 1987

The Magnificent Illusion: The Professional Social Worker's Search for Asylum
Jerome G. Miller, D.S.W., L.C.S.W.
Executive Director for the National Center for Institutions and Alternatives
May, 1986

A Renewed Look at: Human Development, Human Needs, Human Services
Gisela Konopka, D.S.W., Professor Emeritus
University of Minnesota
May, 1985

Adolescents in the 1980's: Toward Dynamic Youth Development
Norman A. Sprinthall, Professor
North Carolina State University
May, 1984

Youth Employment, Unemployment, Underemployment: A Continuing Dilemma
Ray Marshall, Professor Economics and Public Affairs
University of Texas
May, 1983

Return to Top

Juvenile Justice Reform: Agenda for the 1980's
Rosemary C. Sari, School of Social Work,
University of Michigan
June, 1982

Some Aspects of Social Policy in Australia and Beyond
Jacqueline J. Goodnow, School of Behavioral Sciences
Macquarie University in New South Wales
May, 1981