Rachel Fendler, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Art Education at Florida State University where she serves as Director of Teacher Certification in Art Education. She received her BA in Art History from Smith College, an MA in Visual Culture Studies and an MA in Arts and Education from the University of Barcelona. She received her PhD in Arts and Education from the University of Barcelona.
Dr. Fendler has developed projects in a number of informal educational environments that combine creative practice, new media, and collaboration with teens. She is Co-Chair of the Art Education Research Institute (2021-2022) and past Secretary of the Arts Based Research SIG of the American Educational Research Association. She has been an invited keynote speaker in international conferences on visual studies and arts based research, in Uruguay and Mexico. She has presented and published at the state, national, and international level. Her research and curriculum development consider how creative practice and place-based inquiry may offer young people, and their communities, opportunities to reimagine their modes of being together. This research is interested in the ways that art making may generate a sphere of action for youth civic engagement, both in and outside schools.
PhD, University of Barcelona. Arts and Education. Supervisor: Dr. Fernando Hernández Hernández.
MA, University of Barcelona. Arts and Education. Supervisor: Dr. Judit Vidiella.
MA, University of Barcelona. Visual Culture Studies. Supervisor: Dr. Fernando Hernández Hernández.
Art for Life (ARE5358)
Critical Analysis (ARE5641)
Doctoral Seminar: Social Foundations of Art Education (ARE6937)
Doctoral Seminar: Philosophical Structures (ARE6937)
Research Survey (ARE5745)
Seminar in Professional Practices (ARE5950)
Special Topics: Cultural Politics & Public Pedagogies (ARE5930)
Special Topics: New Materialisms & the Arts (ARE5930)
Social Reconstruction in Art Education (ARE5650)
Affect theory, civically engaged art education, arts-based educational research, curriculum and pedagogy, poststructural theory in education, teacher education, youth participatory action research