WIES Series

Wisconsin Ideas in Education Series (WIES)

The Heterogeneity Problem: New Approaches to Parsing the Variance in Mental Health Research

January 29, 2021

Damien Fair tackles the heterogeneity problem encountered in psychiatric research and clinical investigations due to the assumption that categories in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual represent homogenous syndromes. The speaker will provide considerations, concepts, and approaches for investigators examining human cognition, education, and mental health.


Connections, Conversations & Communities: Engaging with the World’s Largest Collection of Type

February 27, 2020

Stephanie Carpenter, a graphic designer and letterpress printer, discusses how she helps facilitate learning through storytelling and hands-on experiences at the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum. She will share how she fell in love with type and the importance of history, art and design at a working museum. This lecture is part of the Wisconsin Ideas in Education Series, presented by the Early Career Faculty of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin--Madison with support from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.


Beyond the “English Learner” Label: Recognizing Latina/o/x Students’ Multilingual Repertoires

February 12, 2020

In this talk, Ramón Martínez delves beneath the label of “English Learner” to reveal the complexity of Latina/o/x students’ everyday language. He highlights how their everyday linguistic dexterity overlaps with the kinds of language and literacy privileged in academic settings. He shares examples and findings from his ethnographic research in a Los Angeles school that can inform the design of robust learning environments for Latina/o/x children and youth.


Visualizing Invisibility

November 20, 2019

In his work, Bohyun Yoon explores the conceptual properties of glass more than the actual, physical glass itself. He searches for ways to visualize its transparency, often experimenting with other materials to do so. He currently is expanding his study of visibility and perception by researching the illusion of human relationships. His work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, West Collection, Tama Art University and Song Eun Art Space.


Design in Storytelling

November 6, 2019

In this pressentation, Ellen Lupton, one of the most influential educators in contemporary graphic design, will explore how designers create compelling experiences to touch people’s minds and emotions. She will share how we move, act and respond when we look at a poster, website or road sign, while using fun and surprising examples of design to help you master the art of the narrative.


History and Knowledge from Below: Living and Learning Otherwise

October 23, 2019

Targol Mesbah, of the California Institute of Integral Studies, discusses Mexico's Zapatista indigenous peasant movement, which for 25 years has resisted colonial and racialized capitalism by building autonomous communities, councils and schools to create a world in which many worlds fit. She reflects on what lessons the political theory and practice of this leading contemporary social movement can teach those in "otherplaces" about living, learning and teaching during intensifying environmental destruction, political violence, and displacements of human and non-human populations.


Supporting Teacher Emotional Health: Reducing Stress and/or Improving Well-Being

October 11, 2019

Nathaniel von der Embse shares insights from a series of studies across states, throughout a school year, and within a school day highlighting the conflicting influences of stress and well-being on teacher burnout and instructional practices. He will highlight implications for supporting teacher emotional health.


Examining Relationships Between Group Hierarchy and Racial Identity Attitudes

October 9, 2019

Malik Boykin, Presidential Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Science at Brown University, researches intergroup relations, mentorship, prejudice and racial identity. He is working to publish a manuscript based on his dissertation, which demonstrates several psychological processes associated with endorsing negative stereotypes about Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

This event is part of the Wisconsin Ideas in Education Lecture Series, an interdisciplinary speaker series intended for educators and future educators across campus. It is organized by early career faculty members from UW-Madison’s School of Education, with support from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.


Examining Relationships Between Group Hierarchy and Racial Identity Attitudes Video

October 9, 2019

Malik Boykin, presidential diversity postdoctoral fellow at Brown University, researches intergroup relations, mentorship, prejudice and racial identity. He is working to publish a manuscript based on his dissertation, which demonstrates several psychological processes associated with endorsing negative stereotypes about Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).


Metacognitive Awareness of Estimation Across the Lifespan

May 1, 2019

Clarissa Thompson explores awareness of whole number and fraction estimation in children and adults and how this awareness impacts their later decisions.She investigates whether confidence judgments are more strongly related to actual performance or perceived familiarity with numbers. She also will discuss the educational implications of metacognitive awareness in mathematics.


WIES Lecture | Developing and Testing Interventions to Increase Racial Equity in School Discipline

April 11, 2019

Kent McIntosh shares details of a deliberate, theory-driven line of research producing rare and promising empirical data on school interventions that reduce the disproportionality of exclusionary discipline practices directed at students of color.


WIES Lecture | Proportional Reasoning: From Symbolic Formalizations to Early Intuitions

April 3, 2019

Michelle Hurst investigates how people think about relations between quantities, including ratios, proportions and simple comparisons like “less” and “more." She will demonstrate how people’s proportional reasoning differs across distinct kinds of representations, and contrast how younger children lacking formal knowledge of fractions rely on their intuition when considering proportion.


WIES Lecture | Design for Social Impact: Guerilla Projections with a Graphic Witness

March 6, 2019

Learn the basics of hacking advertising as a means of social and political awareness from Adam DelMarcelle. He will discuss the first amendment and how it can be utilized to challenge the social status quo.


WIES Lecture | Optimizing the Acoustic Landscape Speakers and Singers Inhabit

February 20, 2019

Kenneth Bozeman, a researcher and master teacher of voice science and acoustic pedagogy, presents an introductory overview of the physiology and acoustics of voice. He explains how understanding the anatomical workings of voice and how the brain processes sound contribute to methods for improving use of our voice, which from birth allows us to express how we feel about what we experience.


WIES Lecture | Mutual Survival: Education Reform & Economic Change in Rural Wisconsin

February 6, 2019

This Wisconsin Ideas in Education Lecture, sponsored by the School of Education Early Career Faculty and WCER, features an exploration by Jennifer Seelig of the role of schools in community development with a focus on the intersection of educational equity and socio-spatial identities. She will share her research of a school-community relationship in Northern Wisconsin and discuss how competition-based education policies unfold in a remote rural community.