Arts Administration, Education and Policy (AAEP) PhD candidate Amanda Tobin Ripley has been named a 2025 Manuel Barkan Dissertation Fellowship Award recipient for her dissertation, "Another World Is Possible": Liberatory Unionism in the U.S. Art Museum Labor Movement. Entering the AAEP doctoral program in 2021, Amanda completed the Museum Education and Administration specialization. Her work within museum and gallery spaces seeks to create and support opportunities for individuals to use the imaginative and connective power of the arts to foster a shared sense of belonging, responsibility, and humanity. Amanda holds an M.Ed. in Arts in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in Art History and East Asian Studies from Oberlin College. She has served as the Associate Director of Education at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), where she developed community and school engagement programs, including establishing the museum’s inaugural Gallery Teaching cohort with an emphasis on critical self-reflection in practice. Amanda has also held a teaching appointment in Arts Management at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. 

Amanda will be recognized and present on her research at the 2025 Barkan and Marantz Award Ceremony on April 18, 2025. The Manuel Barkan Dissertation Fellowship was established in 1995 in the name of the first chair of the department by his wife, Toby Barkan Willits. This competitive award supports the academic and living expenses of a doctoral candidate in Art Education who is completing his/her dissertation.  

Dissertation Abstract:  “Another World is Possible”: Liberatory Unionism in the Art Museum Labor Movement examines how contemporary art museum workers are advancing intersectional social justice through their labor organizing activities. Over three dozen U.S. art museums have established labor unions since 2019 alone, with new organizing drives and contract negotiations unfolding every day. This study examines the external and internal representations, discussions, debates, and manifestations of social justice unionism within this ongoing labor movement and its historical precedents. In recognition of the demographics of museum workers and histories of art museums, this study also implements a Critical Whiteness Studies lens to understand worker motivations and experiences. Using qualitative interviews, social media content analysis, archival research, contract analysis, and participant observation, this study demonstrates a paradigmatic shift in the purposes and structures of museum work. In turning to collective action, unionizing museum workers are forging cross-class solidarities within and beyond museum walls, thereby envisioning new possible futures for both museums and larger society.

Advisor: Dana Carlisle Kletchka, Associate Professor and Graduate Studies Chair