Amanda Tobin Ripley is a doctoral student in the Arts Administration, Education, and Policy department, specializing in museum education. 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 most recently 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.

Fun fact: Amanda was an active member of the MASS MoCA union organizing committee and is always ready to geek out about the ongoing unionization wave in the museum field.

Research interests

• Anti-racist & decolonial museum pedagogy
• Critical Whiteness studies
• Community engagement
• Labor issues in the arts