Professor of Education
School of Education, Room 212
University of Colorado at Boulder
249 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309
Phone: 303-492-8280
Fax: 303-492-7090
E-mail: Michele.Moses@Colorado.Edu
Web: www.michelemoses.com

Michele S. Moses is professor in educational foundations, policy and practice within the School of Education, and is affiliated with the Education and the Public Interest Center. She specializes in philosophy, education policy studies, and political theory. She teaches courses such as Theoretical Issues in Education Policy, Philosophy of Education, School and Society, and Gender Issues in Education.

Her research centers on education policy issues related to equality of educational opportunity and social justice, such as affirmative action. Her work has appeared in the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, Harvard Educational Review, the Journal of Social Philosophy, the Journal of Philosophy of Education, and Educational Policy.

In late 2010, Dr. Moses published a report, “Investigating the Defeat of Colorado’s Amendment 46: An Analysis of the Trends and Principal Factors Influencing Voter Behaviors,” in which she and her research team exposed what led Coloradans to defeat Amendment 46, known as the “Colorado Civil Rights Initiative.” Amendment 46  would have purportedly prohibited “discrimination or preferential treatment in public employment, public education, and public contracting.” Moses and her team concluded that voters’ attitudes and behaviors, media coverage of the amendment and campaign leaders’ perceptions indicate that advocates should take a proactive role in educating the public about ballot initiatives and the language they put forward.

In addition, she is the author of Embracing Race: Why We Need Race-Conscious Education Policy (Teachers College Press, 2002), winner of the American Educational Studies Association Critics’ Choice Award. In an effort to gain a deeper understanding of the roots of the political debates over race-conscious policies like affirmative action that profoundly affect meaningful opportunities for higher education, she is examining the nature of persistent moral disagreement over controversial education policies in the United States, as well as the relationship between moral disagreement and theories of justice. Related to that, she also is studying the increasing number of state ballot initiatives designed to eliminate affirmative action.

Dr. Moses is a recent recipient of the AERA Early Career Award (2009) as well as the AERA Committee on Scholars of Color in Education’s Early Career Contribution Award (2007). She was a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow for 2004-2006 and a Fulbright New Century Scholar for 2007-2008.

Education
PhD, Education, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1999
MA, Philosophy, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1998
MEd, Higher Education, University of Vermont, 1992
BA, Latin American Studies, University of Virginia, 1990