Skip to main content

McCabe Lecture by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot '66

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot ’66, a MacArthur prize-winning sociologist and distinguished professor of education at Harvard University, delivered this year’s McCabe Lecture “On Goodness in Education: Disrupting the Discourse.” In her lecture, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot challenged some of the prevailing rhetoric, perspectives, and metaphors that tend to dominate—and often distort and mute—the public conversations about schooling. She offered a reframing and counterpoint to those contemporary discourses that she sees as more inclusive, productive, and promising.

Lawrence-Lightfoot is the author of 10 scholarly books, several of which have garnered prestigious awards. Her many accolades include 28 honorary degrees, an endowed professorship at Swarthmore College, and an endowed chair at Harvard.