N.C. A&T’s Hancock Selected for Inaugural Fulbright Scholar International Award

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (March 28, 2025) – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s Shirley T. Frye Distinguished Professor of Urban Teacher Education in the College of Education (COEd), Stephen D. Hancock, Ph.D., has been selected for a Fulbright Scholar International Education Administrators (IEA) Award for spring 2025.

Hancock, who joined North Carolina A&T in 2024, will participate in the inaugural Historically Black Colleges and University (HBCU) IEA seminar to Senegal and France for spring 2025.

“I am honored to be a part of this first Fulbright experience to Senegal and France, particularly as it is designed for leaders and educators at HBCUs,” Hancock said. “I’m looking forward to learning from my colleagues abroad and bringing their insights and lessons learned back to A&T. I am equally thrilled to share my own experiences and foster relationships that will enrich our universities, students, colleagues and countries.”

From March 29 to April 12, Hancock and fellow cohort members will visit a wide range of universities and colleges; participate in briefings from faculty, administrators and leaders at public and private higher education institutions as well as from leading educational experts and government officials; and tour historical and cultural sites.

“It is extremely gratifying that Dr. Hancock is being recognized by the Fulbright Scholar Program, especially with this newly established seminar opportunity for HBCUs,” said COEd Dean Paula Groves Price, Ph.D. “As a Fulbright HBCU Institutional Leader, A&T is committed to fostering international relationships and partnerships that strengthen our academic enterprise and that of our host institutions. Dr. Hancock will be an incredible resource in this effort.”

In addition to Hancock’s distinguished professorship, he is inaugural director of A&T’s Center of Excellence for Educational Equity Research (CEEER), which aims to advance research, professional learning, and outreach that informs equitable educational policies, instructional practices and counseling methods. The center seeks to facilitate collaborative opportunities to broaden perspectives in education research to faculty and students in local, national and international research contexts.

Hancock is a member of the European Cooperation in Science & Technology which provides European scholars with innovative data-driven information on intersectionality, equity, justice, and critical understanding of cultural competence. He was an international visiting lecturer at the Pedagogische Hocshule in Ludwigsburg, Germany, and Maynooth University in Ireland. He has also been an invited lecturer at the University College London in England and the African Leadership Institute in Accra, Ghana.

Hancock’s research investigates identity, emotional health and academic performance of teachers and students, the effects of curriculum on the intersectional identity of students, and the phenomenological reality of self in racialized contexts. More specifically, his scholarship has explored how curriculum impacts identity, achievement, mobility, and engagement in schooling and STEM, the impact of curriculum trauma on learning attitudes, and the process of navigating race and other intersectional identities in society. He has co-edited ​five books (two ​in press), numerous chapters as well as articles in top journals including the Harvard Education Review. He published his first book in 2015, Autoethnography as a Lighthouse: Illuminating Race, Research, and the Politics of Schooling.

A Virginia native, Hancock received a B.A. in English and M.A. in teaching from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction, with a concentration in early childhood education and multicultural studies, from The Ohio State University.

Fulbright IEA awards fund a two-week seminar for U.S. higher education administrators to learn about participating countries’ higher education systems, exchange information on best practices, explore the potential for partnerships with institutions of higher education in the host country, and raise the profile of the home institution in the host country and the U.S. participant cohort. The seminar helps build institutional capacity for international education, foster a cross-cultural perspective, and open doors to collaboration with colleagues and students throughout the world.

A&T has been recognized as a Fulbright Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Institutional Leader three times: the inaugural cohort in 2018-2019, 2022 for 2020-2022, and the latest recognition in 2024.