"Assistant or Associate Professor in Educational Policy Studies"

Job Details

Salary: Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.

Job Category: Faculty

Employment Type: Regular

Job Profile: Assistant Professor

Job Duties: The Department of Educational Policy Studies at the UW-Madison invites application for a full-time, tenure-track faculty position at the Assistant/Associate level, with a focus on Education, Environment, and Society. The faculty member is expected to develop original, innovative research that can attract external funding to explore the relationships among education, environmental systems, and social, cultural, economic, and political systems. Fields of educational study might include (but are not limited to): environmental change, sustainability, planetary health, environmental justice, Indigenous lifeways and ecologies, or similar topics. Applicants should have the capacity to teach EDPOL 320: Climate Change, Sustainability, and Education; and to development new courses on environmental change, sustainability, and education, as well as undergraduate and graduate courses that are specialized topically, theoretically, and/or methodologically. Candidates should have earned a Ph.D. or terminal degree in education or a related field by the position start date. The position will begin August 2026.

Departmental Information: The Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is one of the nation’s highest-ranked public programs in educational policy and practice. We examine educational policies, practices, movements, outcomes, dilemmas, and controversies — as well as the forces shaping them — through the lenses of international and comparative education, anthropology, economics, geography, history, sociology, philosophy, policy analysis, and politics. We value a collegial interdisciplinary environment for research and teaching.

Additional Information: The Department of Educational Policy Studies resides in the UW-Madison School of Education, which is regularly ranked as one of the top Schools of Education in the nation. The School is proud of the outstanding breadth of its programs, with departments in Education, Health and the Arts. The School views this broad range of programs as a tremendous strength.

The UW-Madison School of Education is dedicated to maintaining and growing a culture of belonging, well-being, and equal opportunity, believing these values are foundational elements of our excellence and fundamental components of a positive learning/working environment for students, faculty, and staff. This position is part of the Wisconsin Research, Innovation and Scholarly Excellence (RISE) Initiative. Through accelerated and strategic faculty hiring, research infrastructure enhancement, interdisciplinary collaboration, and increased student and educational opportunities, RISE addresses complex societal challenges of importance to the state, nation and world. Building on UW–Madison’s strengths, RISE expands the University’s successful track record of connecting with communities and industry on collaborative solutions.

Over the next three academic years, UW–Madison will substantially increase current hiring levels, bringing 150 new RISE faculty to campus. Candidates hired through RISE will join a community of scholars working across disciplines, schools and colleges on research, teaching and outreach endeavors. The community will engage regularly in venues such as seminar series and colloquia to share ongoing projects and identify opportunities to work together. The University will support the community, facilitating access to research infrastructure, and funding to support broad and rich collaboration. Further information regarding RISE can be found at: https://rise.wisc.edu/

Land Acknowledgement: The Department of Educational Policy Studies occupies land in Teejop, the ancestral territory of the Ho-Chunk nation. Information about UW-Madison's commitment to Our Shared Future may be found at: https://oursharedfuture.wisc.edu/

Key Job Responsibilities:

• Develop and teach undergraduate and graduate courses in educational policy studies
• Conduct original research and generate scholarly publications sufficient for tenure at a major research university
• Participate in interdisciplinary and collaborative efforts with other departments, schools, and colleges
• Engage in professional service at the university, local, regional, national, and/or international level commensurate with appointment level
• Serve on departmental, School of Education, and university committees
• Supervise and serve on the committees of Master’s and Doctoral candidates

Department: School of Education / Educational Policy Studies

Compensation: Negotiable Commensurate with qualifications and experience. This position offers a comprehensive benefits package, including generous paid time off, competitively priced health/dental/vision/life insurance, tax-advantaged savings accounts, and participation in the nationally recognized Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) pension fund.

Required Qualifications:

• Candidates should have earned or be completing a PhD or terminal degree in education or related field to be conferred by the start date of the position.
• Expertise in education, broadly construed, in relation to environmental change/sustainability, environmental justice, planetary health, Indigenous lifeways and ecologies, and other related fields of study.
• Evidence of established research and scholarship

Preferred Qualifications:

• Evidence of success in securing external funding to support research (preferred)
• Evidence of excellence in teaching (preferred)
• Experience working in settings that reflect a broad spectrum of identities and experiences (preferred)

Candidates at the rank of Associate Professor must possess all of the above qualifications commensurate for appointment with tenure at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Education: Earned doctorate or terminal degree in education or related field. Degree must be conferred by start date.

How to Apply: Please complete the online application at jobs.wisc.edu and follow the instructions. From the job posting you can begin by selecting either selecting "I am a current employee" or "I am not a current employee" in the upper right corner of the page. You will be asked to create a profile and upload the following documents: (a) letter of interest with a description of current and future research, as well as relevant teaching experience, (b) curriculum vitae, and (c) two samples of scholarly writing. Applicants will be asked provide references during the recruitment process. To ensure consideration, application materials must be received by November 12, 2025. This position will remain open, and applications may be considered, until the position is filled.

Contact Information: Jacob Leonard, jacob.leonard@wisc.edu, 608-265-5956