Donald Alexander Downs

Donald Downs is the Alexander Meiklejohn Professor of Political Science, Law, and Journalism at UW-Madison, and the Glenn B. and Cleone Orr Hawkins Professor of Political Science at the University. He is also the director and co-founder of the Uniersity’s Wisconsin Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy (2007-present). In 2013, Downs received the national Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award for his defense of academic freedom and freedom of thought at UW-Madison and in higher education generally. Downs also won the University's 2014 Hilldale Award in the Social Studies for " A Distinguished Career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Research, Teaching, and Service."