All posts by Carlos Cortes, Joseph Zolner

Carlos E. Cortés is a retired history professor who has been a diversity speaker, educator, trainer, and consultant for nearly fifty years. His books include: The Children Are Watching: How the Media Teach about Diversity (2000); his memoir, Rose Hill: An Intermarriage before Its Time (2012); and a book of poetry, Fourth Quarter: Reflections of a Cranky Old Man (2016), which received honorable mention for best book of poetry in the 2017 International Latino Book Awards. He also edited the 4-volume Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia (2013). Joseph Zolner is an Adjunct Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). From 1999 to 2018, he served as Senior Director of the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education. Now semi-retired, he published a book chapter titled “Becoming a More Creative and Innovative Leader: Pursuing a Different Kind of Professional Development” in Disruptive Transformation: Leading Creative and Innovative Teams in Higher Education (2020).

Diversity and Speech No. 28: Teaching Diversity across Generations at Harvard – by Carlos E. Cortés and Joseph Zolner

A Co-Authored Interview

Carlos:  Joe, it’s been more than two decades since we started working together at the Harvard Summer Institutes for Higher Education.  Lots of continuities, but also lots of changes.

Joe: Yes, I first attended your sessions on diversity in higher education in the late 1990’s.

Carlos: Even through I’d been doing diversity workshops for a couple of decades, using the Harvard case study method was a brand new experience.

Joe: The Harvard Graduate School of Education’s summer programs have a distinctive leadership development structure.  Very immersive, retreat-like experiences for cohorts of a hundred or so higher education administrators.  I recall framing your early sessions as “diversity and community.”

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