B. Stephen Carpenter II is the inaugural Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Dean in the College of Arts and Architecture and professor of art education and African American studies. He is also a founding co-director of the Summer Institute on Contemporary Art (SICA) and chief executive artist for Reservoir Studio.
Carpenter’s research and creative practice in art education spans curriculum theory; professional development for pre-K-12 teachers through contemporary art; public pedagogy; participatory and socially engaged art practice; critical art education studies; and the global water crisis as curriculum. During the 2017–2018 academic year, he was Ida Ely Rubin Artist-in-Residence in the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, as well as artist- and learner-in-residence, Easterly Parkway Elementary School.
He is co-editor of The Palgrave Handbook of Race and the Arts in Education (2018); Professional Development in Art Museums: Strategies of Engagement Through Contemporary Art (with Dana Carlisle Kletchka) (2018); and Curriculum for a Progressive, Provocative, Poetic, and Public Pedagogy (with Jennifer Milam, Stephanie Springgay, and Kris Sloan) (2006); and co-author of Interdisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Art in High School (with Pamela G. Taylor, Christine Ballengee Morris, and Billie Sessions) (2006). Carpenter is a former senior editor of Studies in Art Education (2017–2019) and Art Education(2004–2006), and a past co-editor of the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy (2010–2013). In recognition of his contributions to the field of art education, the National Art Education Association (NAEA) named him a Distinguished Fellow (2013) and the recipient of the Eugene Grigsby Jr. Award (2008) and the Lowenfeld Award (2020). Carpenter is a member of the board of directors of the International Council of Fine Arts Deans (ICFAD).