Seminar for Research in Art Education (SRAE) Column: Summer 2023

Celebrating Graduate Student Research

Column by: Lisa LaJevic, SRAE Past Chair This is my last column as Chair. It has been a pleasure working with colleagues who are dedicated to research. I know SRAE will be in capable hands as I pass the reins over to Christen García (Figure 1). From the San Diego–Tijuana borderlands, García’s performance and scholarly work is informed by Chicana and borderlands theories. She is assistant professor of art education and graduate coordinator at I University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Welcome, Christen!

[[image 9999 "Figure 1. Christen García, SRAE Chair.]]

As Chair, I enjoyed meeting graduate students and learning about their scholarship. Congratulations to Lauren Stetz (Figure 2), this year’s recipient of the Eisner Dissertation Award. As a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University, Stetz’s dissertation, titled Transnational Feminist Data Visualization Mapping of Artists’ Responses to Violence Against Women, is a participatory action research project that explores how 24 global artists and their artworks address violence against women. I also want to congratulate Kendall Crabbe and Luke Meeken as the runners-up!

[[image 9999 "Figure 2. Lauren Stetz, 2023 Eisner Dissertation Award recipient."]]

Lastly, I want to recognize the following students who shared their work during SRAE’s Graduate Student Research Lightning Talks at the NAEA Convention:

• Pardis Bakhtiari, Texas Tech University, New Materialism: Conceptualization of Becoming-Woman. The research study explores how posthumanist performativity affects the concept of women’s bodies in the works of feminist artists.
• Britney Coppick, Rhode Island School of Design, The Border Crosser’s Pocketbook: A Guide to Community Engaged Pedagogy in After School Arts. The thesis project examines the effectiveness of border crossing in after-school arts classrooms and aims to develop pedagogical tools for educators.
• Sara Goodwin, Indiana University, Art, Adolescence, Fandom, and Freedom to Be Who You Are. The research explores how the creative expressions of teens in a public library arts and crafts program inform the way such programming is understood, in terms of youth identity.
• Jenna Shira Green, The University of Arizona, Mindfulness at the Art Museum: An Exploration of Theory + Practice. This research examines mindfulness as praxis and pedagogy and its implications for art and wellness programs within museum education.
• Jiayi Guo, University of Georgia, Outside the Box: Research on Chinese Ceramic Art Education. The research will explore an approach and ideology of non-Western mainstream art education, the Chinese ceramic art pedagogy based on imitation.
• Kathleen Kelley, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Face to Face Instruction in the Post Pandemic Era: A Case Study of an Art History Core Course. This research aims to understand the corresponding patterns of learners’ intellectual performance in postpandemic pedagogy in an art history course.
• Alexa Kulinski, Syracuse University, The Matter of Artmaking and Teaching: Exploring Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions and Uses of Matter in Artmaking, Reflection, and Curriculum-Making. This dissertation is an arts-based inquiry that examines the ways preservice art teachers perceive and use matter in their studio work, visual journals, and K–12 unit plans.
• Xinyu Liang, Rhode Island School of Design, Things I’ve Learned From Doing Cosplay: An Investigation on Incorporating “Atypical” Creative Practices Into Art Education. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the potential of incorporating “atypical,” creative practices into 6th–12th grade art education using cosplay.
• Morgan McDonald, The Ohio State University, Forgotten Pieces: Art as Unpacking Identities You Forgot to Celebrate. The goal of the study is to give practical tools for artists, teachers, and students to unpack identities they may “forget” to celebrate.
• Carly Sherman, Kent State University, The Intersections of Gender and Age Across Feminist Art Educators: A Study on the Meaning of Feminism in Art Education. This research examines gender-based oppressions across four generations of feminist-identifying art educators to unpack generational relationships of oppression.
• Seva Simone, Rhode Island School of Design, Design: A Path to Agency, Design Thinking: An Educational Imperative. This thesis explores tangible methods of incorporating design and design thinking into art education.
• Addy White, The University of Memphis, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy and Curricular Decision-Making in Elementary Art Education. This is a comparative case study examining the curricular decisions of elementary art educators implementing culturally sustaining pedagogy.
• Yawei Xiao, Florida State University, Jump out the Web of Gender: Feminist Perspectives on Curating in China. This study aims to understand the current state of feminist curating and museum practices in Chinese cultural contexts.
• Rachel Zollinger, The University of Arizona, Children’s Drawing as Ecocultural Identity. This study uses an arts-based methodology to conceptualize drawing as multispecies intersubjectivity in connection with relational ecological identity.

Many thanks for sharing your research. The projects are amazing and will impact the field of art education. Keep up the great work!

Christen Sperry Garcia, SRAE Chair