Check out examples of a range of recent publications from faculty and staff across our School of Education:
Erica Halverson’s experiences over more than two decades as a teaching artist and researcher has led her to advocate for utilizing the arts in a way to fundamentally rethink what good learning, teaching, and curriculum can be. She provides a blueprint for such efforts in her book released in October 2021, “How the Arts Can Save Education: Transforming Teaching, Learning, and Instruction.”
- Li-Ching Ho is a co-author of a book released in September 2021 titled, “Curriculum for Justice and Harmony: Deliberation, Knowledge, and Action in Social and Civic Education.”
- Mitchell Nathan is the author of a book published in September 2021 titled, “Foundations of Embodied Learning: A Paradigm for Education.” Nathan is a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor with the Department of Educational Psychology. Nathan said he wrote the book “to share the large body of evidence showing that the way we move in the world — and even the ways we imagine how we move — shape our cognitive processes.”
- Gloria Ladson-Billings, a professor emerita with the School of Education, in September 2021 released her latest book, “Critical Race Theory in Education: A Scholar’s Journey.” The book is a collection of her seminal essays on critical race theory (CRT), with Ladson-Billings seeking to clear up some of the confusion and misconceptions around race and inequality. And in October 2021, Ladson-Billings released another book, “Culturally Relevant Pedagogy,” which provides a definitive collection of her groundbreaking concept.
- A book by Julie Stamm — “The Brain on Youth Sports: The Science, the Myths, and the Future” — was released in July 2021. Aimed at parents, coaches, youth sports administrators, and health care providers, “The Brain on Youth Sports” dispels common myths, explains the science around repetitive brain trauma in sports, and empowers parents to make in- formed decisions about sports participation for their children. Stamm is a clinical assistant professor in the School of Education’s Department of Kinesiology.
- Carl Grant, a professor with the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, is the author of “James Baldwin and the American Schoolhouse.” Released in April 2021, this work uses essays and speeches by Baldwin to discuss the effects of race and racism — and also provides educators and students with purpose, meaning, and suggestions for how to stand up and fight oppression.
- Julia Eklund Koza is the author of a book re- leased in August 2021 titled, “ ‘Destined to Fail:’ Carl Seashore’s World of Eugenics, Psychology, Education, and Music.” Koza is a professor emerita in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and with the Mead Witter School of Music. This book examines the relationship between eugenics and prominent U.S. psychologist and educator Carl Seashore’s views on ability, race, and gender.
- Anjalé Welton, along with the University of Missouri’s Sarah Diem, edited “Strengthening Anti-Racist Educational Leaders: Advocating for Racial Equity in Turbulent Times.” Released in October 2021, the work expands on the existing research on anti-racist educational leadership by identifying what type of capacity building is needed for school administrators to facilitate anti-racist change in their schools. Welton is a professor with the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.
Jackson receives Rupple-Bascom Professorship
Jerlando F. L. Jackson was appointed to the Rupple-Bascom Professorship in August 2021 by UW–Madison Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs John Karl Scholz.

“It is a distinct honor to assume the Rupple-Bascom Professorship,” says Jackson, who also is the Vilas Distinguished Professor of Higher Education and chair of the Department of Education- al Leadership and Policy Analysis. “The resources and platform will be used to deepen my research commitment, and advocacy to disrupting organizational disparities in and outside of the education enterprise.”
Jackson is the director and chief research scientist of Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory (Wei LAB), which focuses its efforts on designing, conducting, and disseminating research that informs policymakers, practitioners, and citizens on how to best promote equitable and inclusive learning and work environments.
Jackson’s research centers on hiring practices, career mobility, workforce diversity, and workplace discrimination — and has evolved to focus on organizational disparities. With a career stretching over two decades, he has earned more than $13 million in grant and research funds.
The Rupple-Bascom Professorship will provide Jackson with discretionary funds over the next five years to be used for research and scholarly related activities.
Mason named Conway Professor in Kinesiology
Andrea Mason was selected as the inaugural Con- way Professor in Kinesiology, School of Education Dean Diana Hess announced this past fall.

Mason has been a faculty member in the Department of Kinesiology since January 2002 and is currently serving as department chair. She directs the Motor Behavior Laboratory and recently received federal funding to develop a virtual reality assessment system for older adults to evaluate their risk of falling. A second line of research Mason is pursuing looks at movement control in autistic children and young adults.
The Conway Professorship will provide Mason with discretionary funds over the course of five years to be used for research and scholarship.
“Sometimes there are projects where you just need a little bit of pilot money to get it started, and that can lead to something bigger,” says Mason. “So knowing that for the next several years I am going to have that flexible money will really allow me to be creative in some of the projects I want to do.”
Alumni Ginny (1978, BS in physical education and dance) and Mike (1978, BS in engineering) Conway are generous supporters of the School of Education. In addition to backing the Conway Professorship in Kinesiology, they also recently provided a significant gift that will ensure the department’s Adapted Fitness Program will have 5,000 square feet of dedicated space in the university’s new Bakke Recreation and Wellbeing Center, which is replacing the UW Natatorium. The Conways have also funded the Conway Fellowship in Kinesiology and the Conway Undergraduate Scholarship in Dance, which supports three students.
Spring 2022 University Theatre
The School of Education’s Department of Theatre and Drama will present two productions during the spring semester:
“A Piece of My Heart”
March 3-11
Gilbert V. Hemsley Theatre
By: Shirley Lauro
Director: Department of Theatre and Drama Professor Baron Kelly
“A Piece of My Heart” consists of the true stories of six courageous women sent to Vietnam and their struggle to make sense of a war that irrevocably changed them and a nation that shunned them. This work, by UW–Madison alumna Shirley Lauro, is filled with the music and soul of a tumultuous era in U.S. history.
“Heathers the Musical”
April 14-24
Mitchell Theatre
Book, music, and lyrics by: Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe
Director: Guest Artist Jake Penner
Music director: Ross Shenker
This show is a darkly delicious story about Veronica, who is desperate to join the ruthless clique “The Heathers.” After falling for the new bad boy, JD, Veronica is kicked out of the clique and the pair resolve to rid Westerberg High School of the cruelly popular elite forever. A hilarious, heartfelt, and homicidal musical based on the cult classic film.