Kenji Hakuta

Kenji Hakuta is the Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education at Stanford University, where he has been since 1989, except for a three-year period where he helped start the University of California at Merced and was Founding Dean of its School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts. An experimental psycholinguist by training, Dr. Hakuta is best known for his work in the areas of bilingualism and the acquisition of English in immigrant students.

He is the author of numerous research papers and books, including Mirror of Language: The Debate on Bilingualism (Basic Books, 1986) and In Other Words: The Science and Psychology of Second Language Acquisition (Basic Books, 1994). He chaired a National Academy of Sciences panel resulting in the report, Improving Schooling for Language-Minority Children (National Academy Press, 1997), and co-edited a book on affirmative action in higher education, Compelling Interest: Examining the Evidence on Racial Dynamics in Higher Education (Stanford University Press, 2003).

Dr. Hakuta is also active in the policy applications of his research. He has testified before Congress and other public bodies on a variety of topics, including language policy, the education of language minority students, affirmative action in higher education, and improvement of quality in educational research.

He received his BA magna cum laude in psychology and social relations, and his Ph.D. in experimental psychology, both from Harvard University.