Research Interests
Professor Conrad’s research program is fueled by his commitment to both enhancing the quality of teaching and learning experiences in higher education, and to advancing the development of college and university curricula across all fields of study at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. His research and publications include: 15 books; 7 monographs; more than 100 articles, book chapters, and other publications; and over 30 policy studies and reports for the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education (Office for Civil Rights). More specifically, Professor Conrad's research is centered around seven lines of inquiry: liberal and general education; curriculum design; teaching and learning; academic change; desegregation in higher education; Minority-Serving Institutions (Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges, and Hispanic-Serving Institutions); and program quality at the institutional, departmental, and course levels. Along these lines of inquiry, his research has been grounded in both quantitative and qualitative methods, though in recent years Professor Conrad primarily has relied upon qualitative research methods and techniques. Professor Conrad served as president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education from 1987-1988. Since joining the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, his books include Cultivating Inquiry-Driven Learners: A College Education for the Twenty-First Century
(2012, forthcoming, with Laura A. Dunek), The SAGE Handbook on Research in Education: Ideas as the Keystone of Exemplary Inquiry (2011, co-edited with Ron Serlin), College & University Curriculum: Placing Learning at the Epicenter of Courses, Programs, and Institutions (2007, co-edited with Jason Johnson), Qualitative Research in Higher Education: Expanding Perspectives (2001, co-edited with Jennifer Grant Haworth and Lisa Lattuca), Emblems of Quality: Developing and Sustaining High-Quality Academic Programs (1997, with Jennifer Grant Haworth), and A Silent Success: Master's Education in the United States (1993, with Jennifer Grant Haworth and Susan B. Millar). External funding for his research has been provided by the Council of Graduate Schools, The Pew Charitable Trusts, U.S. Department of Justice, TIAA-CREF, PricewaterhouseCoopers, USA Funds, Kresge Foundations, and Lumina Foundation for Education. For the past three decades Professor Conrad has served as a key expert witness and consultant to the U.S. Government in major civil rights cases involving higher education for both the Department of Justice and for the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education. Specifically, from 1979 to 2001 he served as an expert witness—notably on academic program quality and program duplication in higher education, desegregation in higher education, and higher education curriculum—for the U.S. Department of Justice in six prominent civil rights cases involving race and gender in higher education. Along with conducting extensive policy studies and preparing detailed reports as well as testifying extensively in all of these cases, on one occasion he served as the rebuttal witness to George Wallace, the former Governor of Alabama whose opposition to desegregation led President John F. Kennedy to bring in federal troops to ensure the peaceful desegregation of the University of Alabama. Four of these civil rights cases concerned statewide desegregation of higher education (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Ohio) and two involved whether women should be able to attend all-male public institutions (U.S. v. Virginia., et. al [VMI case] and Faulkner v. Jones, et. al [The Citadel]). Moreover, two of the six cases culminated in landmark decisions on race and gender discrimination by the U.S. Supreme Court (1992 U.S. [Ayers] v. Fordice [Mississippi higher education desegregation case] and the 1996 VMI case. From 1997 to 2010 he served as a consultant to the Office of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, regarding higher education desegregation in Texas, Virginia, Maryland, and Oklahoma. Altogether, he has been a major architect of statewide plans for advancing desegregation in higher education in six states. His research, writing, and testimony have been cited approvingly and extensively by the U.S. Supreme Court. (In the scholarship and commentary on desegregation in higher education in the United States and writings on the VMI case, Professor Conrad is frequently identified as a key witness for the government. For example, he is featured in a 2010 documentary video on the Voices of American Law website at Duke University—a website that features interviews with key parties in major U.S. Supreme Court cases.)