Distinguished Professor of Education Greg Duncan Honored by Society for Research on Child Development for Service as Society President
At the recent biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Child Development (SRCD), Distinguished Professor of Education Greg Duncan was honored for his service as Society President for the past two years. Following Dr. Duncan's Presidential Address to the Society at the closing ceremonies of the 2011 session, SRCD leadership presented Dr. Duncan with a commemorative plaque and acknowledged his many contributions to the Society's advancement during his tenure.
Left: Greg Duncan
Right: Lonnie Sherrod, SRCD Executive Director
Abstract of Presidential Address
As with any discipline, the field of child development progresses by both deepening and broadening its conceptual and empirical perspective. The rewards to refinement are impressive, but there is little need for encouragement in this area, since our disciplines, universities, and funding agencies reward depth and rarely breadth. I make the case for breadth: For combining insights from different disciplines and methods in new and synergistic ways. Examples include ways of looking at the influences of family poverty on children and methods for assessing impacts of policies. Drawing together disparate ideas about development and methods from different research traditions can be time-consuming and frustrating, but also deeply rewarding, both scientifically and personally. I close with some thoughts about how departments, universities, funding agencies and SRCD itself might promote interdisciplinary inquiry.
