Biography
Meghan is a first-year Ph.D. student in the History of Art and Architecture and Film and Media Studies. She studies histories of visual culture, museums, and media, and is especially interested in how these interconnected forms secured the cultural authority of the United States after 1945. She is curious about how images disseminate knowledge and advance capitalist and supremacist ideologies to both local and global audiences.
Meghan worked in the Education Department at the Carnegie Museum of Art for several years before joining AmeriCorps and serving her term at a community-literacy non-profit in Pittsburgh. Her background in art and education fuels her interest in what influences how people learn from and decode visual objects. She is interested in critical theory and pedagogy within both academia and museums and exploring ways for her research to be more accessible and engaging to broader audiences.
Education Details
Ph.D., History of Art and Architecture and Film and Media Studies, University of Pittsburgh, in progress
M.A., Art and Visual Culture Education, concentration Museums and Community, University of Arizona, 2023
Thesis: Screen Education: Using Exhibitions to Research Museums and Learning through Film
B.A., History of Art and Architecture, minor Museum Studies, University of Pittsburgh, 2016
Thesis: Insignificant in the Image of Time: Confronting Spectator Dominance in the Representation of American Landscapes
Selected Presentations
“Edu-curation & Research Practice,” ART160D1 Museums as Cultural and Community Institutions, University of Arizona, 2023
“TV in the Art Room: Using Movies & TV to Teach Art, History, and Media Literacy,” National Association of Media Literacy Educators, 2022
“Media Literacy & Art Education,” ARE360 Creative Art Methods, University of Arizona, 2022
“History and Critique of the Art Museum,” ART150B1 Engaging Visual Culture, University of Arizona, 2021, 2022
Public Projects
Curator, Screen Education, Rombach Gallery, University of Arizona, 2023
Co-Curator, Why Color? A Class Residency for Edu-Curation, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ, 2022
Symposia Organized
Co-Chair, Emerging Conversations Symposium, (Un)framing Borders: Sharing Knowledge Across Boundaries of Art, Visual Culture, and Education, University of Arizona, 2022. Emergingconvos.com