Introduction to the Ph.D. in Art Education Handbook

Welcome to the Art Education Graduate Program at Penn State!

Our Program embraces intersectional and transnational understandings of inequality and power. As a vibrant community of scholars and students, we deploy transdisciplinary creative approaches to knowledge production, pedagogy, and community engagement. Our faculty and graduate students work on diverse research topics. To get a sense of the range of art education dissertations, we have the Ph.D. alumni listed, many dual-title alumni, with dissertation titles and links to abstracts at https://arts.psu.edu/academics/school-of-visual-arts/sova-dissertations 

The art education faculty in the Penn State School of Visual Arts unequivocally stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, the Disability Justice movement, the Reproductive Justice movement, and the Women, Life, Freedom movement. The School of Visual Arts (SoVA) is committed to social justice and anti-racist education. We guide research, teaching, and service toward making a more just society.

Our dual-title master’s and doctoral degree programs in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) and in African American and Diaspora Studies (AFAMD), contribute to being a nationally and internationally recognized graduate program. For graduate students in other programs at Penn State, we offer a graduate minor in Art Education. Our innovative dual-degree programs provide many scholarly and professional opportunities for our graduate students. We have unparalleled depth and breadth of faculty expertise available to students. The opportunities for transdisciplinary work are enhanced by this large network, as are the connections to career paths after graduation.

This handbook is the guide for navigating Penn State’s Ph.D. in Art Education program.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Art Education Graduate Program Head and Professor-in-Charge, Dr. Aaron Knochel (adk176@psu.edu), as questions arise.