Associate Professor Adam Nelson
Associate Professor of Educational Policy Studies and History
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Faculty Affiliate of WISCAPE
Department of Educational Policy Studies
309 Rust Hall
115 North Orchard Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53715
Tel: (608) 263-2629
Doctoral Degree:
Brown University, Ph.D. History, 1998.
Academic Areas of Interest:
Adam Nelson is interested chiefly in the history of American education, especially the cultural and intellectural history of education and educational philosophy. His research has included projects on the history of higher education, the history of radical and experimental education, the history of federal educational policy (including bilingual education, special education, compensatory education, school funding, and desegregation), and the history of study abroad. He is currently working on a history of nationalism and internationalism in the American research university.
On-Campus Affiliations:
Faculty Affiliate: Center for European Studies.
Faculty Affiliate, Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Post-Secondary Education (WISCAPE).
Current and Recent Professional Activities:
Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2002-2003.
Advanced Studies Fellowship at Brown University, 2003-2004.
Advisory Board member, The Center for the History of Print Culture
in Modern America, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Steering Committee member, Education Fellows Program, University of
Wisconsin-Madison.
Current Research Projects:
Nationalism, Internationalism, and the Origins of the American Research University.
Recent and Representative Publications:
The Elusive Ideal: Equal Educational Opportunity and the Federal Role in Boston's Public Schools, 1950-1985 (University of Chicago Press, 2005).
Nationalism, Transnationalism, and the American Scholar in the Nineteenth Century: Thoughts on the Career of William Dwight Whitney, The New England Quarterly 78:3 (September 2005), 339-374.
The Emergence of the American University : An International Perspective, History of Education Quarterly 45:3 (Fall 2005), 427-437. Click here for link to article.
Education and Democracy: The Meaning of Alexander Meiklejohn, 1872-1964. University of Wisconsin Press, 2001.
Courses Taught:
EPS 300: School and Society (from Plato to the Present)
EPS 412: History of American Education (cross-listed with History)
EPS 665: History of the Federal Role in American Education
EPS 713: History of Higher Education in Europe and America (cross-listed with History)
Future Courses
New Course: History of Radical, Experimental, and Utopian Education in the United States and Great Britain
