Drs. Fulani, Holzman & Gordon

The newest initiative of the All Stars Project is The Research Center, founded earlier this year by Dr. Lenora Fulani, her long-time colleague Dr. Lois Holzman, Director of the East Side Institute for Short Term Psychotherapy, and Dr. Edmund Gordon, Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education at Teachers College Columbia University. Geared toward researchers, educators and policy makers whose work concerns the failures of our education and human services systems, the Center has a special interest in exploring and better understanding innovative practices and new conceptions of learning and development inside and outside of schools.

In February Drs. Fulani, Gordon and Holzman launched the Center with an all-day seminar attended by researchers from Columbia University, CUNY’s Graduate Center, John Jay College and UMass Amherst, and several program developers, founders of alternative schools and funders. All agreed that this opportunity to talk together about an issue they cared deeply about—across professional locations and disciplines and in the unique All Stars Project setting—was unusual and valuable.

The Center’s second seminar took place on May 11. The conversation centered on the All Stars’ performance approach and the East Side Institute’s explication of how performance is a positive challenge to psychology’s focus on individual behavior and why this is so important when the learning and development of young people is at stake.

“The Research Center at the All Stars Project is unique among ‘think tanks,’” says co-director Holzman, “because it’s an intellectual space that grows out of practice, rather than a university in which ideas dominate and practice is tagged on.” Plans include continuing the seminar series, developing collaborative projects among researchers and practitioners with diverse perspectives, and creating a virtual library.