Fifteen faculty and campus members at UW–Madison have been named Morgridge Fellows for 2024–2025, including WCER members Matthew Wolfgram and Amanda Fowler, WCER/School of Education researcher/professor Shamya Karumbaiah, and SoE doctoral student Virginia Downing.

The 15 were selected through a juried process for a year-long learning community designed to support community-engaged scholarship. The Morgridge Center for Public Service defines community-engaged scholarship as teaching, research, and scholarly activities performed in equitable, mutually beneficial collaboration with communities to fulfill campus and community objectives. 

Now hosting its seventh cohort with the ’24–25 fellows, the Morgridge Fellows program helps selected individuals explore ways to further weave community engagement into the core functions of the university. The upcoming year will include learning sessions focused on developing and sustaining community-university partnerships for community-based learning courses and research. This year’s applicant pool was the largest in program history, program leader Cory Sprinkel says.

Here’s more about the WCER/School of Education selectees:

• Fowler is a WCER project assistant and a doctoral student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, where she studies language and identity politics through the lens of visual culture and archive studies.
• Wolfgram, an associate researcher and principal investigator at WCER, is an anthropologist of education and an education researcher. His research uses ethnography, participatory action research, and other qualitative research methods to study factors impacting the educational experiences of minoritized college students. His newest study examines STEM experiences of Hmong undergraduates across Wisconsin—studentengagedpar.wceruw.org. 
• Downing is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Educational Policy Studies, and Karumbaiah is an assistant professor in data science and in the Department of Educational Psychology.
• Downing’s research broadly asks: How do people, spaces, and policies lead to affirming and equitable schooling experiences for Black youth? Downing uses qualitative methodologies, community-based research, and critical theory to explore Black community engagement, community-school relationships, and the role of community-based spaces in education.
• Karumbaiah studies human-centered Artificial Intelligence (AI) for teaching and learning with the aim of augmenting human-human interaction and practices. Her current research focuses on constructing a scientific and critical understanding of equitable and responsible use of AI in classrooms.

Learn about all 15 new fellows on the Morgridge Center for Public Service website.