About Dr. Travis
Biography
Sarah Travis is an Assistant Professor in Art Education in the School of Art + Design at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Travis is a former K-12 art teacher from New Orleans who uses narrative, ethnographic, phenomenological, and arts-based research methods to critically examine issues around the identities and experiences of artists, art students, and art educators. Dr. Travis received the 2019 Elliot Eisner Doctoral Research Award from the National Art Education Association for her dissertation, Portraits of Young Artists: Artworlds, In/Equity, and Dis/Identification in Post-Katrina New Orleans. She is the co-editor of Pedagogies in the Flesh: Case Studies on the Embodiment of Sociocultural Differences in Education (Palgrave, 2018) and Arts Education in Action: Collaborative Pedagogies for Social Justice (University of Illinois Press, 2020). Dr. Travis has published journal articles in Art Education, Studies in Art Education, The Urban Review, International Journal of Education & the Arts, and Journal for Cultural Research in Art Education.
Education
University of North Texas, PhD in Art Education, 2018
The University of Texas at Austin, MA in Art Education, 2008
Tulane University, BA in Art Studio & African and African Diaspora Studies, 2001
Research and publications
Selected publications
Edited Books
Travis, S., Stokes-Casey, J., & Kim, S. (Eds.). (2020). Arts education in action: Collaborative pedagogies for social justice. University of Illinois Press. https://doi.org/10.5406/j.ctv19fvx35
Travis, S., Kraehe, A. M., Hood, E. J., & Lewis, T. E. (Eds.). (2018). Pedagogies in the flesh: Case studies on the embodiment of sociocultural differences in education. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59599-3
Journal Articles
Hood, E. J., & Travis, S. (forthcoming, 2023). Critical reflective practice for art educators. Art Education, 76(1).
Travis, S. (forthcoming, 2022). Confessing critical frictions in the arts and education. Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, 39(1).
Travis, S. (2021). “Artists, we need you”: Artist identity, creative agency, and the urgency of action. Studies in Art Education, 62(2), 142-161. https://doi.org/10.1080/00393541.2021.1896250
Travis, S. (2020). Portrait of a methodology: Portraiture as critical arts-based research. Visual Arts Research, 46(2), 100-114. https://doi.org/10.5406/visuartsrese.46.2.0100
Travis, S. (2020). Flashpoints of artist identity formation. Art Education, 73(5), 16-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2020.1781438
Travis, S. (2019). Whiteness, artist identities, and artworld spaces. Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, 36(3), 91-109. https://jcrae.art.arizona.edu/index.php/jcrae/article/view/152
Salazar, S., & Travis, S. (2019). [self] re-presentation & [self] reflection: a conversation about artmaking, teaching, and research. Visual Arts Research, 45(1), 90-94. https://doi.org/10.5406/visuartsrese.45.1.0090
Travis, S. (2018). Art as civil disobedience: Allora & Calzadilla. Art Education, 71(4), 50-58. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2018.1465319
Travis, S., & Hood, E. J. (2016). Troubling sociocultural narrative pedagogy: Implications for art educators. Studies in Art Education, 57(4), 318-328. https://doi.org/10.1080/00393541.2016.1204523
Kraehe, A. M., Acuff, J. B., & Travis, S. (2016). Equity, the arts, and urban education: A review. The Urban Review, 48(2), 220-244. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-016-0352-2
Kraehe, A. M., Hood, E. J., & Travis, S. (2015). "I'm so offended!": Curriculum flashpoints and critical arts education. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 16(18), 1-28. http://www.ijea.org/v16n18/
Teaching and advising
Classes taught
ART 140: Introduction to Art
ARTE 301: Curriculum, Assessment, and Art Education
ARTE 501: Issues in Art Education: Arts-Based Research
ARTE 502: Curriculum Development in Art
ARTE 505: Foundations of Art Education