Abigail Beneke is a doctoral student in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and a 2018-19 Center for Ethics and Education McPherson Fellow. Her research examines the process by which disproportionate discipline occurs along lines of race, gender, and class, with a focus on how teachers and other adults in the school building make sense of and enact school discipline. She uses critical sociocultural theories, as well as qualitative case study methods, to understand how teachers make sense of school discipline and school discipline reforms; how social relations and networks shape this process; and the broader social, political, and economic contexts in which their sensemaking and enactment is rooted.
Abigail holds a BA in anthropology from Lawrence University and an MA in urban education (as well as a certificate in learning disabilities). Before studying at UW–Madison, Abigail taught first grade in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.