Curt Bonk, Professor in Instructional Systems Technology, has been named a Fellow by the American Educational Research Association. The AERA Fellows Program honors education researchers for their exceptional contributions to, and excellence in, education research. Nominated by their peers, the 2022 Fellows were selected by the Fellows Committee and approved by the AERA Council, the association’s elected governing body. 

Bonk remembered when he and colleague Tom Reynolds drove to their first AERA conference in 1987: “At the time, I had no clue that exactly 35 years later I would be attending a banquet at the annual AERA conference wherein I would be named a ‘Fellow’ among all of these world leading educational researchers and highly esteemed scholars.”

“For me, being named an AERA fellow is quite hard to fathom since AERA has 25,000 members and the annual conference attendance is often around 15,000 people. Only a small number of AERA members become fellows each year. To have my name on the AERA fellows page still seems a bit strange,” he added.

As a Fellow, Bonk is encouraged to nominate other AERA fellows and to inform friends and colleagues about the program. Since his first AERA conference all those years ago, Bonk has coordinated many symposia, keynoted business meetings and events and helped start special interest groups within AERA.