Below you will find a list of doctoral dissertations, career outcomes and several alumni profiles to highlight the wide array of research conducted by our esteemed alumni body and the vast career trajectories a PhD in Arts Administration, Education and Policy can take students.
Yu-Chin "Alice" Cheng
Critical witnessing in higher education: Teaching race, ethnicity, and gender diversity through visual culture
Advisor: Joni Acuff
Stephanie Stillman
Eating by Us: Setting the Table as Site for Performance Pedagogy
As an Orthodox Jewish woman engaging in Arts-Based Research (ABR), this dissertation engages poststructural feminist theory to examine the performative gender roles traditionally ascribed to women surrounding the Passover seder. Through a performance art pedagogy, and an investigation into the work of Jewish feminist performance artists Judy Chicago, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Yael Davids, and Martha Rosler, the lived experiences of seven traditionally observant Jewish women are explored though a series of interviews, the creation of an artist book Haggadah, and a final performance piece presented by the researcher. This study seeks to investigate the question: How can a socially engaged performance deconstructing gender roles in the Passover seder offer opportunities to reconsider an arts-based performance pedagogy in art education and beyond? The following subquestions will also be examined: (a) how can the table serve as a site for discursive performance art among a diverse community of participants, (b) in what ways can an artist book serve as a space for exploring both self and others, specifically regarding gender identity, and (c) how can an Arts-Based approach to Jewish feminist art be used to explore how performances based on gender identity are created and sustained?
Advisor: Dana Carlisle Klethcka
Current position: Middle School Art Teacher, Our Lady of Mercy School for Young Women
Aelim Kim
Critical Multicultural Art Education Through Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL): Connecting Students in the U.S. and South Korea Author Info
This action research explores the integration of globalized popular culture and virtual exchange into the art education curriculum through the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) method. The COIL curriculum focused on the educational possibilities for students from different countries to access collaborative learning processes while participating in digitally and globally connected conversations as global citizens. Rooted in critical multiculturalism and critical media literacy as theoretical frameworks, this action research project was carried out to reduce the prejudices, discrimination, and oppression inherent in specific sociocultural contexts with societies and individuals. The COIL curriculum utilized an asynchronous online discussion board and was implemented in partnership with George Mason University’s South Korean campus. Conducted over three action cycles in spring 2022, fall 2022, and fall 2023, the COIL curriculum provided students from two different institutions with opportunities to critically analyze dominant media narratives within the global contexts while engaging with global peers. Participants examined and interpreted globally distributed media texts, including music videos, TV shows, and films, investigating how cultural contexts influence audience interpretations. To deepen the effectiveness of critical media literacy education, the study applied critical discourse analysis theories from Foucault (1972), Hall (1997), Rose (2001), and Barthes (1973). These frameworks provided insight into how media representations encode cultural and social values and how audiences construct meaning from visual texts. The data analysis showed that the COIL curriculum effectively provided Globally Networked Learning Environments (GNLEs) that can question students' normalized ways of knowing within their local contexts. The interaction of blended stories, lived experiences, and varied social contexts within the COIL classroom encourages an openness that enables participants to critically examine dominant narratives in popular media from the global perspective. The research findings also highlight students' prosumer learning behavior, which blurs traditional boundaries between instructors as knowledge providers and students as passive recipients within the COIL curriculum. Using digital tools, students actively created and shared content reflecting their understanding of different cultures. A student-centered learning environment based on a digital platform fostered collective knowledge production where all participants learn from each other, fostering intercultural competence and global awareness. Lastly, cross-cultural conversations exposed participants to new cultural perspectives, reinforcing the role of the classroom role as a cultural site interconnected with global phenomena. This research demonstrated that integrating globalized popular culture with the COIL curriculum effectively fosters critical thinking and intercultural dialogue. By addressing cultural misunderstandings and promoting diverse perspectives, the COIL curriculum empowered students to become active contributors to a dynamic global learning community.
Advisor: Joni Acuff
Current Position: Art Education Fellow, University of Arkansas