Lecture: Inspiration from Days Gone By
The centennial of the Graduate School will be celebrated Wednesday, April 9, with a series of colloquia led by ten eminent alumni. Representing the Libraries and the School of Education is Homer L. "Skip: Meade, Ed.D.
Dr. Meade received two graduate degrees from UMass Amherst: a masters in philosophy in 1980 and a doctorate in educational policy research and administration in 1987. He is a scholar of W.E.B. Du Bois and a champion of the legacy of Dr. Du Bois. Dr. Meade’s master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation are respectively "A Pragmatist: William Edward Burghardt Du Bois" and "W.E.B. Du Bois and His Place in the Discussion of Racism."
Dr. Meade has served as a member of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at UMass Amherst. A resident of Berkshire County in Massachusetts for more than thirty years, Dr. Meade teaches in the local regional school district and independent schools. He has been involved in the planning of many area Du Bois programs, including the 1979 Dedication of the W.E.B. Du Bois Boyhood Homesite as a National Historic Landmark. He has been instrumental in formulating UMass Amherst’s commitment to the Du Bois legacy through its stewardship of the Du Bois Boyhood Homesite. Recently, as a Trustee of Berkshire Country Day School, Dr. Meade presented the idea of a W.E.B. Du Bois Curriculum Project that embraced and supported BCD's full-year educational program that touches on themes, investigates the writings, and examines the life of good works of Dr. Du Bois.
Dr. Homer Meade is Senior Area Director at the Evaluation Systems Group, a part of Pearson Education, Inc. He also holds an M.Ed. from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and received an A.B. in Philosophy from Cornell University in 1969.
"There are lessons learned about life which, when shared, benefit many," says Dr. Meade. "Dr. Du Bois was one who chronicled the lessons he learned and was one who shared those lessons with his students, his associates, and the members of the global community to whom he reached out and spoke to - often in their tongue."
Dr. Meade will share insights on the life and work of W.E.B. Du Bois made available to him through research at the UMass Amherst Libraries.