Prudence L. Carter takes on the formidable task of assessing the impact of race on the culture of public schools, among both students and faculty, in two nations marked by histories of extreme racial inequality: the United States and South Africa. Through school visits, interviews, and patient compilation of statistics, she examines the salience, and in some cases the slippery role, of race in interpersonal and professional relations. In the process, she bravely attempts to bring out the voices and subjectivities of the people on all sides of the color line(s) with whom she interacts.

The following is a transcript of an interview between the Dean of the University of California Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education, Prudence Carter, and UC Berkeley’s outgoing Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion, Na’ilah Suad Nasir, recorded at the 2017 Graduate School of Education Research Day.