Announcing New Keynote and Featured Sessions for SXSW EDU 2023

With March just around the corner, we are pleased to announce several new powerful voices to the Keynote and Featured Session lineup!

These educational leaders are pioneers in their fields. They will share their journeys of pushing through barriers and advocating for access, engagement, and achievement of students of all ages, races, and economic backgrounds.

We look forward to diving into their breakthroughs in dynamic curricula that reflect the whole human, the society we live in, the issues that students face, and new ways to learn at SXSW EDU 2023.

Keynote Session

Ruth Simmons on Higher Education & American Democracy

Ruth Simmons has a unique perspective on higher education: She has led a women's college, an Ivy League institution, and a public historically Black college. As the nation's postsecondary institutions face a new and evolving set of issues around access, affordability, and curriculum, hear the pioneering president, in conversation with The Atlantic's Adam Harris, discuss the shifts that she has seen in higher education and where we go from here.

Ruth J. Simmons, President at Prairie View A&M University, President Emerita of Brown University and President Emerita of Smith College
Adam Harris, Staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of “The State Must Provide: Why America's Colleges Have Always Been Unequal—and How to Set Them Right”

Featured Sessions

NAEP Results Are Dismal—So Where Do We Go from Here?

Our nation’s students have suffered so much during the last few years and we are just now really seeing the brunt of pandemic-related disruptions in learning. The 2022 NAEP results saw huge declines in reading and the largest-ever math decline in the history of NAEP. We will explore promising practices to boost student learning and talk about how prioritizing rigor and equity and using ARP funds on strategies have been proven to work to address unfinished learning.

Denise Forte, President and CEO, The Education Trust
Adrienne Battle, Director, Metro Nashville Public Schools
Stephanie S. Elizalde, Ed. D., Superintendent, Dallas Independent School District
Melanie Kay-Wyatt, Ed. D., Interim Superintendent, Alexandria City Public Schools

Ratchetdemic Street Scholars: A New Direction to Healing in Education

In this session Professor Emdin convenes a panel of #HipHopEd experts in psychology, education and healing to interrogate the ways that a Ratchetdemic approach to scholarship, teaching and pedagogy can transform wellness in teaching and learning. Angel Jones, Dena Simmons and Napoleon Wells are the foremost experts in their respective fields and situate street scholarship as a path to freedom in education.

Christopher Emdin, Professor, HipHopEd
Angel Jones, Author and Professor, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Dena Simmons, Founder and Executive Director, LiberatED and Visiting Professor at the Institute for Racial Justice at Loyola University of Chicago
Napoleon Wells, Author and Psychologist, Department of Veterans Affairs

Join Your Community in March

Register to attend in Austin or experience SXSW EDU Online. Celebrate education through compelling sessions, networking opportunities, and so much more at SXSW EDU from March 6-9, 2023.

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SXSW EDU 2023 Keynote and Featured Speaker photos provided by the speakers. Adam Harris photo by Carl Timpone/BFA.