UW–Madison’s Rachel Williams is receiving the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Division L, Educational Policy and Politics.
Williams is a new faculty member in the School of Education, starting as an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies for the spring semester. Before she began her faculty role she spent a year as an Anna Julia Cooper Postdoctoral Fellow, which provided an academic year free from teaching to set up her research.
Williams’ dissertation, titled “Policy in Palimpsestic Time: Black Schooling in the 21st Century Southern City,” traces the trajectory of 21st century education reforms in Memphis, Tennessee, a majority Black southern city replicating the New Orleans post-Katrina education model of state takeover of local public schools and charter school expansion. Her research was funded through dissertation fellowships from the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation and the Ford Foundation.
The text is currently under embargo as Williams prepares a book project.
Williams will receive her award at the AERA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia later this week.