{"id":14946,"date":"2013-01-29T21:35:33","date_gmt":"2013-01-29T21:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=14946"},"modified":"2013-06-17T17:06:58","modified_gmt":"2013-06-17T17:06:58","slug":"anthropologist-awarded-frederick-douglass-medal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/anthropologist-awarded-frederick-douglass-medal\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthropologist Awarded Frederick Douglass Medal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Yolanda<\/a>
Yolanda Moses<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by Dan Wang<\/em><\/p>\n

The University of Rochester will award the Frederick Douglass Medal to renowned anthropologist Yolanda T. Moses, a leading scholar on the origins of social inequality, former president of the City College of New York, and one of the driving forces behind the creation of the traveling exhibition“RACE: Are We So Different?”<\/i>\u00a0currently at the Rochester Museum & Science Center.<\/p>\n

“Dr. Moses is eminently qualified to receive this recognition for both her scholarly contributions and the public impact of her service,” said Cilas Kemedjio, director of the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African American Studies, which sponsors the annual award. “Her willingness to serve her discipline and higher education at large is among the most striking aspects of her accomplishments.”<\/p>\n

University President Joel Seligman will present the medal to Moses at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 6, in the Hawkins-Carlson Room before her lecture “Social Justice and its Challenges.” A panel discussion with activists and academics follows. The event is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n

A professor of anthropology at the University of California at Riverside, Moses studies the origins of social inequality in complex societies through the use of comparative ethnographic and survey methods. She has focused on gender and class disparities in the Caribbean, East Africa, and the United States. More recently, she turned to issues of diversity and change in universities and colleges in the United States, India, Europe and South Africa.<\/p>\n

“Like Frederick Douglass, Yolanda Moses has spent her professional life seeking to understand the rationalizations that buttress racial discrimination in the United States and abroad,” said President Seligman. “Her insights make her a compelling advocate for greater diversity in higher education.”<\/p>\n

A past president of the American Anthropological Association, Moses is currently the associate vice chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Excellence at the University of California at Riverside. She also is involved in national projects to promote diversity in education with the National Council for Research on Women and the Women of Color Research Collective.<\/p>\n

Moses has served as chair of the advisory board for the traveling\u00a0RACE<\/i>\u00a0exhibit, which explores the topic of race through the lens of anthropology, biology, and history. The exhibit helps visitors understand the everyday experience of living with race and provides background on the history of race as an idea.\u00a0RACE<\/i>\u00a0also shares the findings of contemporary science that are challenging the concept of race all together. In Rochester, the exhibit serves as the centerpiece of a community-wide initiative to help understand and break down barriers to equal opportunity.<\/p>\n

Moses is a co-author of the exhibit’s companion book and author of the earlier book\u00a0How Real is Race: A Sourcebook on Race, Culture and Biology<\/i>\u00a0(2007). She received her doctorate from the University of California at Riverside and an honorary doctorate from Bloomfield College of<\/p>\n

New Jersey.<\/p>\n