The British Academy elected 84 new fellows in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the SHAPE subjects — the social sciences, humanities, and the arts.
And among this year’s cohort of new fellows is UW–Madison’s Gloria Ladson-Billings, a professor emerita with the School of Education who formerly held the Kellner Family Distinguished Chair in Urban Education.
Ladson-Billings’ research examines the cultural foundations of teaching and learning that leads to educational improvement for students who are most marginalized in schools. She also investigates critical race theory applications to education.
Ladson-Billings is the author of the critically acclaimed books, “The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children,” and “Crossing Over to Canaan: The Journey of New Teachers in Diverse Classrooms.”
She was the first Black woman to become a tenured professor in UW–Madison’s School of Education in 1995. In 2005-06 she served as president of the American Educational Research Association, and in November 2017 was elected to a four-year term as the president of the National Academy of Education.
Ladson-Billings formally retired in 2018 after being on the UW–Madison faculty for more than 26 years, but she remains highly engaged in important work. (To learn more about her remarkable career, check out this 2019 report from University Communications).
Founded in 1902, the British Academy is the United Kingdom’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. It is a fellowship of over 1,400 of the leading minds in these subjects from the UK and overseas.
Fifty-two fellows were elected from UK universities, with another 29 “Corresponding Fellows” — including Ladson-Billings — elected from universities in the United States, Australia, India, Russia, Italy, France, Singapore, Poland, China, Turkey, Germany, Canada, Sweden, the Republic of Ireland and Hungary.
To learn more, check out this news release.