Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

The contemporary glass world is a place of diverse making that ranges from fine art to design to craft. Artists in the field fluctuate from formally educated with MFAs to individuals who are self-taught, trained through various apprenticeships and/or piecemeal educational experiences. How glass artists define success in their field, and how they chart a potential trajectory towards it, are questions that seem as though they should have clear answers. However, as the number of graduates from art programs increases, as well as the cost to start and sustain a career in the field, there is precariousness about how to maintain a successful practice. Additionally, the glass profession remains male dominated even though more females currently graduate from higher education programs throughout the US. This study focuses on female glass artists from emerging to established in their careers through qualitative interviews with 27 participants, and 7 participant observations, to reflect on the challenges and successes they have experienced and to provide a survey of the field at a time that women are seeking parity. Their stories and experiences are cross referenced with descriptive quantitative data gathered from the institutions they have interacted with as artists, students, educators, and/or administrators. The analysis and interpretation of the collected data summarizes emergent themes, and focuses on core challenges, and successes that participants encountered, while highlighting strategies that participants employ persist in the field. Utilizing portraiture methodology with narrative analysis and auto-ethnographic inclusions throughout, I provide a critical survey of the field, how female glass artists are currently working within its limitations, and how they define success.

Committee: Shari Savage PhD (Advisor); Rachel Skaggs PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Dana Carlisle Kletchka PhD (Committee Member); Christine Ballengee Morris PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Arts Management; Fine Arts

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2023, Educational Leadership

This study examines the professional experiences of three teachers in a national network of urban, low-income serving, Catholic high schools. These teacher-participants were chosen to participate in this study because they engaged in experiential, community-based pedagogy within this national network and exemplified a commitment to social justice through their teaching practice. As detailed in Chapter One, such teaching practice resembles critical pedagogy and aligns with best practice in quality civic education. Therefore, by examining the experiences of critical educators, this study aimed to illuminate ways we can enhance civic learning for K-12 students by enhancing support for and removing the barriers to critical educators' distinct pedagogical practice. This is particularly important for Students of Color, who have faced historical exclusion from formal and informal modes of civic learning (Campbell, 2012; Lo, 2019). Critical theory (Freire, 1970/1993; Giroux, 2003; Horkheimer, 1972[1992]) and social reproduction theory (Bourdieu, 2016; Bowles & Gintis, 2016) were used to frame this study, which employed qualitative portraiture methodology (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997) to answer two key research questions. The first question— Why do teachers in this Network engage in experiential, community-based pedagogy? —drew attention to the internal and external factors impacting my participants' practice. This set up inquiry into the second key research question: How do these educators exhibit civic and/or critical consciousness about and through their work? Findings from this study revealed that both internal and external factors contributed to the choice teacher-participants made to engage in experiential, community-based pedagogy. Professional ecology, consisting of local school and corporate cultures, were particularly influential on these teachers. That ecology functioned in distinct ways at each study site to both aid and obstruct the critical teaching (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Érica Fernández (Committee Chair); Kathleen Knight Abowitz (Committee Member); Thomas Misco (Committee Member); Lisa Weems (Committee Member); Veronica Barrios (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Education Philosophy; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Educational Theory; Mathematics Education; Religious Education; Secondary Education; Social Studies Education; Teacher Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, EDU Teaching and Learning

Today, it is still more likely to read about African American males ages 18-24 engaging in nefarious behavior involving guns, drugs, and violence than it is to see their names on honor roll, dean's, or graduation commencement lists. For the select few young men who have successfully avoided the high school to prison pipeline (ACLU, 2008) to attend college, this is cause for celebration, and at the same time inquiry. The challenges facing African American students in higher education have been well documented (Arnold, 1993; Fleming, 1984). The need to connect with African Americans who have been successful in higher education in regards to increasing their self-efficacy (Gloria & Robinson Kurpius, 1996; Hackett & Byars, 1996), their persistence and resilience in college (Farmer-Hinton & Adams, 2006; Smith, 2007), as well as their overall satisfaction in college (Harper, Carini, Bridges, & Hayek, 2004; Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005) has also been well documented. Given these findings, the purpose of this study was to explore mentor-mentee perspectives and experiences that impact African American male persistence and academic excellence in an Historically Black College and University (HBCU). The overarching question driving this research is: How and when does the mentoring relationship, created between African American male scholars/administrators and African American male students impact the willingness of students to persist and excel in an HBCU? This study employed qualitative methods and portraiture to generate, analyze, and report data (Lightfoot & Hoffman Davis, 1997; Yin, 2006). Specifically, two individual interviews were conducted with each student participant and each mentor. In addition, the researcher's narrative and voice, informed by portraiture methods, was included to illuminate an African American mentee-mentor experience over time. The study is the first in the research literature on mentoring African American males to explore case studies (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Patricia Enciso (Advisor); Antoinette Errante (Committee Member); Strayhorn Terrell (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; African American Studies; African Americans; Education; Higher Education; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Personal Relationships

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2010, Leadership and Change

On December 14, 1957, after winning the Nobel Prize for literature, Albert Camus challenged artists attending a lecture at the University of Uppsala in Sweden to create dangerously. Even though Camus never defined what he meant by his charge, throughout history, artists involved in movements of protest, resistance, and liberation have answered Camus' call. Quite often, the consequences were costly, resulting in imprisonment, censorship, torture, and death. This dissertation examines the question of what it means to create dangerously by using Camus' challenge to artists as a starting point. The study then turns its attention to two artists, Augusto Boal and Ngugi wa Thiong'o, who were detained, tortured, and imprisoned because they boldly defied the dominant power structure. Lastly, the research focuses on a group of front-line artists, the Mississippi Caravan of Music, involved in the contemporary struggle for civil rights in the United States. The individual artists and the artist group represented in the dissertation are from different parts of the globe and were involved in acts of rebellion, resistance, revolt, or revolution at varying points in history. Portraiture, a form of narrative inquiry, is the research method employed in the dissertation. The qualitative approach pioneered by Harvard scholar Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot “combines systematic, empirical description with aesthetic expression, blending art and science,humanistic sensibilities and scientific rigor” (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997, p. 3). The dissertation extrapolates concepts from the traditional literature and expands the boundaries to make room for a more integrated understanding of social change, art, and transformational leadership from the bottom up. Artists and artist groups who create dangerously is an area often overlooked in the field. The electronic version of this dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd

Committee: Jon Wergin PhD (Committee Chair); Laurien Alexandre PhD (Committee Member); Philomena Essed PhD (Committee Member); Stewart Burns PhD (Other) Subjects: Adult Education; African Americans; African History; African Literature; American History; American Studies; Black History; History; Latin American History; Literacy; Music; Sociology; Theater