Works by UW–Madison MFA candidates Fatemeh Fani and Swan Ferraro were recognized at the Wisconsin Artists Biennial, which took place Feb. 7–April 19 at the Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA). Fani received the Lee Weiss Award, which recognizes a first-time exhibitor, for “Endless Mourning,” a personal archival photograph. An immigrant to the United States from …
By Karen Rivedal, Office of Research and Scholarship A new book by Peter McDonald, an assistant professor in the School of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction at UW–Madison, details how notions of play were transformed in the second half of the 20th century, dubbed the “era of designed play.” The book, “The Impossible Reversal: A …
UW–Madison’s David Kaplan, Hilldale Professor and Richard L. Venezky WARF Professor of Educational Psychology, has received a Renewed Research Stay Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The award recognizes Kaplan’s research contributions and collaborations with German colleagues since he first received a Humboldt Research Award in 2015. Kaplan will spend two months at the …
By Laurel White Several faculty and staff from the School of Education are part of a new campus program dedicated to exploring how to engage with and respond to the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education. Mark Dziedzic (Greater Madison Writing Project), Chris Kirchgasler (Department of Curriculum and Instruction), David Williamson Shaffer (Department of Educational Psychology), Peter van Kan (Department …
By Jennifer Smith, Institute for Clinical and Translational Research The Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS), a nonprofit membership association of translational scientists from the nation’s leading academic medical centers, honored its Fellows at Translational Science 2026, a national conference being held in Milwaukee from April 20–23. Among the honorees are three senior leaders from …
A paper led by a Summer Education Research Program (SERP) student and co-authored by a UW–Madison faculty member and three graduate students has received a Best Student Paper Award from the Learning Sciences Special Interest Group (SIG) at the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) 2026 Annual Conference. The paper’s lead author is Reina Yorba-Rico, a …
By Victoria Vlisides, Center for Healthy Minds A 2022 New York Times Opinion piece asks, “Should More Teenagers Ditch Their Smartphones?” Smartphones are where we spend most of our time on the internet and plenty of studies have shown negative effects of screen time on kids. But what about how a teen’s well-being is affected by …
Cigdem Unal received the Early Childhood Champion Award from the National Coalition for Campus Children’s Centers (N4C) at the 2026 national conference. Unal is the director of the Office of Child Care and Family Resources (OCCFR) housed in UW–Madison’s School of Education, and a dedicated advocate for children, families, and educators. For more than two decades she …
UW–Madison’s Li Chiao-Ping has been named a 2026 Fellow of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters. Li is the Sally Banes Professor of Dance and a Vilas Research Professor in the School of Education’s Dance Department. She also directs the Dance Department’s new MFA program and is the artistic director of Li Chiao-Ping Dance. …
By Laura Red Eagle, Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery Long before science caught up, Vincent Van Gogh sensed a connection between melancholy and microbes. In a letter dated April 30, 1889, he described his mysterious bouts of anxiety and exhaustion: “At times I have fits of anxiety without cause, or a feeling of emptiness and fatigue …