Brittney Kilgore (Ph.D. ’27), a doctoral student in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice, received awards and recognition from the National Academy of Education and Spencer Foundation, the University of Georgia, and the Mary Frances Early College of Education for her research.
Kilgore received the prestigious NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship from the National Academy of Education (NAEd) and Spencer Foundation for her dissertation, “Water in the Well: Lowering and Lifting Georgia Jeanes Teachers’ Pedagogical Theories Through Archival Recovery, 1908–1968.” Out of a pool of nearly 500 applicants, Kilgore is one of 35 fellows for 2026 and will receive funding during the writing process of her dissertation, along with mentorship and support from an NAEd mentor.
“The NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship is an incredible honor and affirmation of the importance of preserving the histories of rural African American women educators whose work transformed rural communities across the South,” Kilgore said. “My research centers on the lives and innovations of Georgia Jeanes Teachers, women whose educational and community leadership shaped generations despite operating within systems of racial and gender inequality. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to continue uplifting their stories through this work.”
With grounding in Black feminist theory and critical rural theory, Kilgore’s research introduces a methodology she calls speculative nonfiction to encompass the disparate, fragmented nature of the institutional records of the Georgia Jeanes Teachers.
In addition to the dissertation fellowship, Kilgore previously received research awards for her work on the Georgia Jeanes Teachers, including the Janelle Padgett Knight Graduate Award in spring 2025 from the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, which supports research projects in arts and humanities at UGA, as well as first place and fan favorite at the 3MT™ Selling Our Scholarship competition held during the College of Education’s Annual Research Conference last month, where she presented an overview of her dissertation research.
“Receiving the Knight Graduate Award and being recognized through the 3MT Mary Frances Early competition was especially meaningful because it affirmed the importance of making scholarly research accessible and impactful beyond the academy,” she said. “These awards encouraged me to continue sharing the stories of Black rural educators in ways that connect history, community, and public understanding.”
Kilgore’s dissertation is co-chaired by Morgan Faison, assistant professor, and Kyunghwa Lee, the Omer Clyde and Elizabeth Pharr Aderhold Professor, in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice. The committee members include Melissa Freeman, professor, and Jamon Flowers, assistant professor, in the Department of Lifelong Education, Administration, and Policy.