Due to the coronavirus pandemic, GRAE 2020 was held virtually, hosted by The Pennsylvania State University, on October 2-3, 2020. 

Graduate Research in Art Education (GRAE) keynotes, Marla Jaksch and Christine Liao, Penn State Art Education alumnae, presented their research on Oct. 2 from 7:00-9:00 PM and served as panel respondents on Oct. 3 for the 16th annual GRAE conference hosted online by the Penn State Art Education Program. The GRAE included a Friday, Oct. 2, virtual open house from 6:00-7:00 PM as well as informal breakout generative dialogues throughout Saturday, Oct. 3 facilitated by grad students enrolled in Penn State’s Art Education Colloquium. Saturday events began at 9:30 AM and concluded at 5:00 PM.

The two-day schedule with presentation abstracts is linked here.

Presenter bios are linked here.

The recording of the Friday keynotes is linked here.

The recording of the doctoral candidates’ presentations on the three Saturday panels is linked here.

FRIDAY, Oct. 2: 6:00-9:00 PM

6:00-7:00 PM Virtual Open House. 

Meet and greet in the foyer and then join Penn State grads in the kitchen, studio, and garden!

Kitchen: Izzy Healey, Maggie-Rose Condit-Summerson, Burçak Gezeroğlu
Studio: Melissa Leaym-Fernandez, Michael Bricker, Siwei Liu
Garden: Zena Tredinnick-Kirby, Eunkyung Hwang, Eunjin Kim

7:00-9:00 PM: Keynotes, Dr. Marla L. Jaksch and Dr. Christine Liao, will each have an hour for presentation to include 10-20 minutes of questions, comments, and discussion.

From a Whisper to a Scream: My Development as Transnational Feminist Artist/Scholar/Activist

This talk explores my journey as a first-generation college student to full professor at The College of New Jersey. I map the personal, professional and research experiences that informed my dissertation and highlight the important throughlines to my current work. I draw attention to my exposure to critical theoretical interventions made by feminists regarding key epistemological and ontological questions that radically impacted my dissertation methodology and methods and served as a foundation for a body of work that has sought to reduce the chasm between theory and practice — revealing and transforming personal and structural inequities. Over the past fifteen years my research has shifted from in scope to include mostly collaborative, transnational, multi-year iterative projects. The result of this work has been the production of projects, white papers, and peer-reviewed publications with undergraduate and high school students and community collaborators in the US, Tanzania, Ethiopia, India, and Nicaragua.

Marla L. Jaksch, Ph.D. is an artist/scholar and associate professor in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department, with affiliate appointments in the African American Studies Department and the International Studies Program’s Africa concentration at The College of New Jersey. Jaksch, a 2010 Fulbright Scholar to Tanzania, holds a dual-title PhD in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Art Education from The Pennsylvania State University, and a BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Her research and teaching interests are transdisciplinary and include: intersectional approaches to neocolonialism, development, and digital cultures; Africana and Black spatial humanities; science, art and technology studies (STEAM); Afrofuturisms; feminist art, material, and visual cultures; transnational feminisms and digital media; feminist pedagogical praxis, research methods, and community engaged learning and research; and transnational girlhood studies. Jaksch’s recent co-authored book, “Open Mic Night: Campus Programs That Champion College Student Voice and Engagement,” was awarded an AERA Outstanding Book Award (2018).

Research is an Unexpected Journey: (How to Jump) From Real to Virtual and Back and Forth

A wise old advice to newly graduated Ph.D. is to build on one’s scholarship to continue the research journey. In this talk about my research journey since my dissertation completed in 2011, I will share how I followed and did not follow such advice. My research interest centers on how technology impacts identity construction. For my dissertation, I explored the virtual body construction of avatars in the virtual world as a process of art-making, identity-making, and knowledge-making. After completing my Ph.D., opportunities emerged that shifted my research from the virtual body performance to real flesh performance focused on interdisciplinary collaboration in creating the Performance of Social Justice, a live dance-film performance. At the same time, my research is branching out into different areas, such as STEAM and International cultural education. I consider the dots on my research map connected via wormholes, helping me move between virtual and real spaces.

Christine Liao, is an associate professor and program coordinator of the Art Education MAT program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She also teaches arts integration to undergraduate and graduate in the Elementary Education program. Her research areas include media arts, digital performance, theorizing virtual body and identity, exploring interactions between virtual and real, STEAM, technology integration in art education, community art, and international cultural education. Christine has presented at national and international conferences, including NAEA, AERA, and InSEA, and has published in journals in the field of art education and education. Her recent work includes co-editing the book, “Critical Digital Making in Art Education,” published by Peter Lang. In addition to working in the field of art education, she is also the UNCW faculty-led international trip Japan Study Abroad program leader since 2018. She is passionate about introducing international experience and culture to students.

 

SATURDAY, Oct. 3, 9:30 AM – 5:00 PM

Each graduate candidate’s research presentation is 20 minutes and grouped into a panel of three presenters. The keynotes serve as the respondents and provide commentary and questions at the end of each set of three presentations in a panel. Penn State graduate students will facilitate break-out room dialogue prior to and after panels with respondent sessions.

 

9:30-10:00 AM Generate Dialogues Morning Warm-Up

Art as the Pedagogical Experience
In this morning warm-up parley, please join Ph.D. candidate Zena Tredinnick-Kirby, as she facilitates an inclusive generative dialogue with Dr.  Eunji Lee about the utilization of a participatory method in creating art as a pedagogical action and the importance of artmaking as a collective engagement.

Empowering the Underrepresented through Feminist Pedagogy and Visual Culture    
Please join Eunkyung Hwang, facilitator, and Dr. Leslie Sotomayor, Penn State alumna scholar, in a generative dialogue about social justice within feminist decolonial education and visual culture. Come and discuss the way of decolonizing hegemony and empowering marginalized students and the role of the educators’ body.

 

10:00-11:30 Panel 1. Becoming

Becoming Art Educators in A Hostland: Interalogical Narrative Inquiry
of International Graduate Students Studying in U.S. Art Education Programs
Yang Deng, Ph.D. candidate in Art Education.
Advisor: Dr. Wanda B. Knight, Associate Professor at Penn State

“More Beautiful and Better”: A Historic Investigation
into the Work and Life of Margaret Burroughs
Debra A. Hardy, Ph.D. candidate in Arts Administration, Education, and Policy with an Art Education Specialization. Advisor: Dr. Joni Acuff, Associate Professor at Ohio State

Preparation of Future College Teachers Within MFA Visual Arts Programs
Dahye Kim, Ed.D. candidate in Art and Art Education.
Advisor: Dr. Mary Hafeli, Professor at Teachers College

 

11:30 AM-12:00 PM Generative Dialogues on Museum Education

Making Race Visible in Art (Museum) Education
Come join Eunjin Kim in a generative dialogue to make race visible by sharing experiences and suggestions about discussing race in art (museum) education.

Critical Pedagogy with Youth in Museums Discussing Feminist Art
Join Siwei Liu to discuss critical pedagogy, feminist art, and museum art education with Dr. Cheri Ehrlich.

 

1:00-2:30 Panel 2. Tweening

Unshackling Systems: Aesthetic Considerations in the
Design of Futures in Civilization Games
Andrew Corpuz, Ed.D. candidate in Art and Art Education.
Advisor: Dr. Richard Jochum, Associate Professor at Teachers College

Contemporary Artwork Data Visualization
in a College Level Digital Artmaking Class:
A Medium for Constructing Students’ Shared Experience in Social Justice Issues
Xuan Zhang, Ph.D. candidate in Arts Administration, Education, and Policy with an Art Education Specialization. Advisor: Dr. Joni Acuff, Associate Professor at Ohio State

Between Order and Disorder:
The Making and Unmaking of a Collective Collection
Sue Uhlig, Ph.D. candidate in Art Education.
Advisor: Dr. Kimberly. Powell, Professor at Penn State

 

2:30-3:00 PM Mid-Afternoon Generative Dialogues

Integrating Video Games in the Classroom 
In this afternoon breakout session, please join Ph.D. student Münire Burçak Gezeroğlu, who will facilitate a generative dialogue about the usage of video games in the classroom and its effects of students’ learning.

The Kids Are Alright….But Are the New Teachers?: Supporting Art Educators as They Assemble Identities that Balance Pre-Service Pedagogical Ideologies with the Shock of the [New] Workplace
Michael Bricker, facilitator of this breakout session, invites participants to engage in meaningful and generative dialogue with Dr. Christina Hanawalt, as we contemplate the best methods to reconcile pre-service pedagogies with professional workspace challenges.

Storytelling as a Process and for Processing
What role can/has storytelling served during the current global pandemic, racial upheaval and economic uncertainty? Come join Izzy Healey with guest scholars, Dr. Heather Kaplan and Dr. Ahran Koo, for a discussion on the iterative process of storytelling and the individual, familial, and social applications of storytelling. 

 

3:00-4:30 Panel 3. Networking

To Draw is to Dance on the Skin of Perception:
Picturing Mycorrhizae as a System of Care
Xalli Zúñiga, Ph.D. candidate in Art Education and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies.
Advisor: Dr. Karen Keifer-Boyd, Professor at Penn State

Artist Residencies and Community, A Journey towards Reciprocity:
Conversations with Six Artists and Their Stories
Carianna Arredondo, Ed.D. candidate in art education.
Advisor: Dr. Judith Burton, Professor at Teachers College

 

4:30-5:00 PM UnWrapping Generative Dialogues

Collaborative Artmaking
Join Melissa Leaym-Fernandez in a generative dialogue on why collaborative artmaking is important and for whom, and how collaborative artmaking can become research.

Holding Creative Space, Artfully Exploring Loss
Join Maggie-Rose Condit-Summerson with Chelsea Borgman in a dialogue on how art education can serve as a site for exploring grief and trauma amidst precarious realities of pandemic, racial injustice, and political/economic instability.

 

GRAE Coordinator: Dr. Karen Keifer-Boyd. Contact kk-b@psu.edu