{"id":420,"date":"2026-11-09T11:50:32","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T17:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/spring-conference\/?page_id=420"},"modified":"2026-11-09T13:29:49","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T19:29:49","slug":"2027-spring-conference-for-wisconsin-educators-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/spring-conference\/2027-spring-conference-for-wisconsin-educators-2\/","title":{"rendered":"2027 Spring Conference for Wisconsin Educators"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Thursday, April 15 &
Friday, April 16, 2027<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Memorial Union, Madison<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

2027 is OPID\u2019s golden year. Fifty years of systemwide programs for faculty, instructors, and other educators in Wisconsin. OPID was imagined and co-created by faculty for faculty, and it has endured for five decades because of faculty working for faculty. (We use faculty as an inclusive term for instructors, lecturers, all teaching educators.)<\/em> For 50 years, OPID has adapted to organizational, technological, and financial challenges, all the while protecting our core mission of teaching and learning with excellence. Teaching matters and OPID endures.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year we invite you to join us for our 50th<\/sup> birthday. We envision a conference program that evokes joyful energy, resilience, vision, community, and renews (again) our identities as Wisconsin educators.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cate Denial<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Catherine (Cate) Denial<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A Pedagogy of Kindness<\/em><\/strong>
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Thursday, April 15, 2027<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Cate Denial<\/strong>, Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of the Center for Learning Innovation at the University of Minnesota-Rochester. Her opening plenary emanates from her latest book, A Pedagogy of Kindness<\/em> (2024) published by University of Oklahoma Press.<\/em> Cate argues that higher education needs to be aggressively and determinedly kind. A Pedagogy of Kindness<\/em> is about attending to justice, believing people, and believing in<\/em> people. Kindness, she writes, is a transformational discipline. Cate\u2019s first book was Making Marriage: Husbands, Wives, and the American State in Dakota and Ojibwe Country<\/em> (2013) published by Minnesota Historical Society Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cate earned an M.A. Degree in History at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee before completing a Ph.D. in History at University of Iowa. She received a B.A. Degree in American Studies at the University of Nottingham, England. She was also a non-degree-seeking student in Anishinaabemowin at University of Northern Michigan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A winner of the American Historical Association\u2019s Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award, she has served as a member of the Educational Advisory Committee of the Digital Public Library of America, and as a Learned Scholar for the National Historic Landmarks division of the National Park Service. Cate currently sits on the board of Commonplace: A Journal of Early American Life. She has held an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation fellowship from the American Philosophical Society, and she is an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society. From 2001 to 2011 Cate served as the Lead Historian for Bringing History Home, a professional development program for K-12 educators funded by $3m from the U.S. Department of Education. From 2022 to 2023, Cate was PI on a $150,000 grant awarded to Knox College by the Mellon Foundation, bringing together thirty-six participants from across higher education in the United States to explore \u201cPedagogies, Communities, and Practices of Care in the Academy After COVID-19.\u201d She is also a pedagogical consultant who works with individuals, departments, and institutions in the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, Canada, and Australia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Anchor Plenary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Teaching Matters: OPID@50
Panel discussion featuring Universities of Wisconsin educators<\/strong> <\/em>
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Moderated by Cyndi Kernahan<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning; and
Professor of Psychological Sciences, UW-River Falls
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Friday, April 16, 2027<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

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Conference Lodging<\/h3>

Details to come.<\/h4>\n

.<\/p>\nHotel Information<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Questions?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Inquiries may be directed to:<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n