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Karen Keifer-Boyd

  • Professor of Art Education & Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
  • Coordinator of the Judy Chicago Art Education Collection
  • Lead for Social Justice Art Education with Linda Steins Art

210 Arts Cottage

Karen Keifer-Boyd

Biography

Karen Keifer-Boyd, Ph.D., is a professor of art education and women's, gender, and sexuality studies at Penn State.

She is past president of the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Women’s Caucus (2012-2014), NAEA Distinguished Fellow Class of 2013, was the 2012 Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Gender Studies at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria. Her first Fulbright Scholars award was in Finland (2006). She is a recipient of a National Art Education Foundation grant (2017-2018) for social justice art education and a National Science Foundation grant (2010-2012) regarding gender barriers in technology. She received the NAEA’s 2013 Edwin Ziegfeld Award, Women’s Caucus 2014 McFee Award, NAEA’s 2015 Technology Outstanding Research Award, and the 2018 Special Needs Lifetime Achievement Award.

She serves on the Art Education Research Institute Steering Committee; the Council for Policy Studies; the NAEA Data Visualization Think Tank, and served on the NAEA Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Taskforce and as coordinator of the Caucus on Social Theory in Art Education. She is co-founder and editor of the journal "Visual Culture & Gender."

Her research on feminist pedagogy, inclusion, disability justice, transdisciplinary creativity, transcultural dialogue, and social justice arts-based research are in numerous publications and translated into several languages. She co-authored four books: "Including Difference" (NAEA, 2013); "InCITE, InSIGHT, InSITE" (NAEA, 2008); "Engaging Visual Culture" (Davis, 2007); co-edited "Real-World Readings in Art Education: Things Your Professors Never Told You" (Falmer, 2000); and served as editor of the "Journal of Social Theory in Art Education" and guest editor for "Visual Arts Research."

Collected Works

Abstract graphic in black, red, and green.
Black and white photo of a grassy field with the sun's rays filtering through cumulus clouds. Rows of female and male symbols adorn the field, with black and white text that states, "White hetero male is not the epitome of normalcy. Break the silence."
Wall installation of a vibrant watercolor piece, cut into an outline of a woman. A bowl sits on a flap cut out from the chest area. The title of the piece, "Write, Erase" is written on a flat stone affixed to the wall adjacent to the installation.
Stylized watercolor painting of the crescent moon with blue wavy lines extending outward, flames spreading out the opposite side of the circle. The center of the circle is green and blue with Roman numerals in the middle.
An upside-down glass goblet sits inside a wood shadow box with rocks, sand, and a fishing reel. Underneath sits a wooden bowl filled with sand, adorned with rocks in the sand and around the bowl.