Established in 1983, the AERA Outstanding Book Award honors the year’s best book-length publication in education research and development.
Loss’ book tracks the dramatic results of the federal government’s growing involvement in higher education between World War I and the 1970s and the conservative backlash against that involvement from the 1980s onward. Major events of the twentieth century serve as the backdrop against which Loss follows higher education’s significant transformation.
“Navigating between elite and popular politics, the book details the myriad ways in which academic leaders and students shaped – and were shaped by – the federal government’s shifting political agenda as it moved from a preoccupation with economic security during the Great Depression, to national security during World War II and the Cold War, to securing the rights of African Americans, women and other marginalized groups during the 1960s and 1970s,” said Loss, assistant professor of public policy and higher education in Peabody College’s Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations.
Loss is one of only 15 award recipients in 14 association-wide categories to be recognized April 29 at the AERA annual meeting in San Francisco.
“We are proud to honor the outstanding commitment and accomplishments of this year’s award winners,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “Through their scholarship and service to the field, they stand as exemplars to AERA’s 25,000 members and to all who are committed to the study and practice of education in the United States and elsewhere.”