Roland Fryer, Jr., will use a statistical approach to dispel common misconceptions in the ongoing debate over racial affirmative action policies during a presentation at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 12 in McCrary Theatre, located in the Center for the Arts on the Elon University campus. Sponsored by the Liberal Arts Forum and the Love School of Business, the presentation is free and open to the public.
Fryer is assistant professor of economics at Harvard University and a junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows. He also serves as a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Fryer uses statistics to move the debate about affirmative action beyond the tense and personal rhetoric that sometimes dominates the discussion. In a March 2005 New York Times Magazine article, Fryer said he believes the field of economics is an ideal venue to analyze the successes and failures of affirmative action. “I want to have an honest discussion about race in a time and a place where I don’t think we can,” Fryer said.
Fryer has been named a “rising star” by Fortune Magazine and been featured in Esquire’s “Genius Issue.” His work has been profiled in Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and Black Voices.
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