Graduate School hosts 21st annual Bouchet Conference on Graduate Education
On April 4-5, nearly 250 attendees took part in the Graduate School’s annual Bouchet Conference on Graduate Education, now in its 21st year. The theme of this year’s conference was “Environmental Justice: The Intersection of Climate Change and Social Equity.”
The conference is named for Edward Alexander Bouchet, who graduated from Yale College in 1874 and became the first African American to earn a doctorate at an American university when he received his PhD in physics from Yale in 1876.
Participants included undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and administrators from Yale and more than 25 institutions across the country. During the conference, 141 scholars were inducted into the Bouchet Graduate Honor Society, which recognizes outstanding scholarly achievement and promotes excellence in doctoral education and the professoriate.
The conference also included 46 poster presentations, 45 oral research presentations, and guest lectures by distinguished Yale faculty, including Gerald Torres, the Dolores Huerta and Wilma Mankiller Professor of Environmental Justice; Karsten Heeger, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics; Eun-Joo Ahn, lecturer, Presidential Visiting Fellow, and a faculty fellow at the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration; and Dorceta Taylor ’85 MFS,’91 PhD, the Wangari Maathai Professor of Environmental Justice at the Yale School of the Environment.
In her keynote address, Taylor discussed Martin Luther King Jr.’s role at the intersection of civil rights and environmental justice, noting that he was at the forefront of addressing environmental justice issues such as equal use of space — from public parks to housing to transportation.
“He was fighting for all things, and he talks about the fierce urgency of now,” Taylor said. “…that’s exactly the kind of moment we are in now.”
Taylor received the 2025 Bouchet Leadership Medal in recognition of her outstanding leadership in her academic field and service as a role model. Taylor has dedicated her research and scholarship in the environmental field to the intersection of race, class, and justice with groundbreaking studies on institutional diversity and workforce dynamics. She has published numerous books examining connections between racial segregation and exposure to environmental hazards.
Michelle Nearon, senior associate dean for graduate student development and diversity at the Graduate School, conferred the medal.
“Professor Taylor is a stalwart figure in academia. Through her work, she has consistently shed light on important social and environmental trends. Professor Taylor's commitment to diversity and inclusion in the educational context is beyond commendable,” Nearon said.”