Three professors from the School of Education are among just 32 UW–Madison faculty members who have been honored with fellowships from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research for 2025-26.
John Hitchcock and Adam Nelson were chosen to receive WARF Named Professorships, and Fred Stonehouse was selected for a Kellett Mid-Career Award. The distinctions acknowledge a track record of excellence in research and provide several years of dedicated funding to continue producing impactful work.
“At the University of Wisconsin–Madison, our researchers push the boundaries of discovery with unwavering curiosity and impact — these awards are not just recognitions, but reflections of their tireless pursuit of knowledge that shapes our world,” says Dorota Brzezinska, vice chancellor for research, in a story released by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research.
“This year’s awardees have demonstrated a commitment to the Wisconsin Idea and are inspiring future generations of researchers.”
John Hitchcock
John Hitchcock (enrolled member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma and Comanche), the Truman Lowe Professor of Art, earned his BFA from Cameron University in 1990 and his MFA from Texas Tech University in 1997. He joined the UW–Madison Art Department in 2001. His creative research combines music, spoken word, painting, installation, and printmaking, and it has been exhibited in renowned museums worldwide. His artworks contribute to the dialogue surrounding Indigenous cultural, social, and political identities, utilizing Indigenous abstraction and storytelling in art that resonates globally.
Hitchcock’s professional roles have included associate dean for the arts in the School of Education, director of the Studio Learning Community, and associate chair of the Art Department. Notable exhibitions include The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; Library of Congress; the Portland Art Museum; the International Print Center in New York; the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe; Denver Art Museum; the Nelson-Atkins Museum; American Culture Center in Shanghai, China; The Rauschenberg Project Space, New York; and Air, Land, Seed at the Venice Biennale 54th International Art Exhibition, Italy. He holds the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professorship (2022), the Kellett Mid-Career Award (2019), and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Artistic Innovation and Collaboration Grant (2012–2015).
Adam Nelson
Adam Nelson, the John L. Thomas Professor of Educational Policy Studies and History, received his PhD in History from Brown University in 1998. He was then a lecturer in History and Literature at Harvard and joined the Department of Educational Policy Studies at UW–Madison in 2001, with a courtesy affiliation in History. An historian of education, his work has examined the history of higher education from the colonial period to the present as well as the history of education policy and law.
Nelson has served as president of the History of Education Society (U.S.) and as senior associate dean in the UW–Madison School of Education. His publications include “Education and Democracy: The Meaning of Alexander Meiklejohn, 1872-1964” (Wisconsin, 2001); “The Elusive Ideal: Equal Educational Opportunity and the Federal Role in Boston’s Public Schools, 1950-1985” (Chicago, 2005); “Exchange of Ideas: The Economy of Higher Education in Early America” (Chicago, 2023); “Capital of Mind: The Idea of a Modern American University” (Chicago, 2024); “Dartmouth College v. Woodward: Colleges, Corporations, and the Common Good” (Kansas, 2025); and two co-edited volumes, “Education and the Culture of Print in Modern America,” with John L. Rudolph (Wisconsin, 2010); and “The Global University: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives,” with Ian P. Wei (Palgrave, 2012).
Fred Stonehouse
Fred Stonehouse, a professor of painting and drawing in the Art Department and affiliate with the Division of the Arts, is known for his surrealist, mystical visual work that seems to pull dreamlike imagination into a framework of American and religious folklore. He treats painting as a form of storytelling, and like his visual work, his stories are surreal. He has been the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Midwest Grant as well as a Joan Mitchell Foundation Individual Artists Grant.
His work has been featured in solo exhibitions at galleries throughout New York, St. Louis, New Orleans, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago, Puebla, Berlin, etc. It has also been collected by institutions such as the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, the Tacoma Art Museum, the San Jose Museum of Art, Northwestern University, as well as prominent individual collectors including Sheryl Crow and Madonna.