The School of Art has hired two new faculty to begin the 2017–18 academic year as assistant professors on the tenure-track in the areas of Art Education and Studio Art Core/Foundation. Christina Hanawalt is one our new faculty, with teaching and research efforts focused in art education.

Hanawalt joined the School of Art faculty in fall 2016 as Visiting Assistant Professor in Art Education. Hanawalt received her PhD in Art Education with a minor in Curriculum and Instruction from the Pennsylvania State University, where her research examined the experiences of new art teachers using a theory of collage as critical practice to generate new understandings of what it means to be an art teacher in contemporary public schools. Prior to earning her PhD, Hanawalt earned a B.S. in Art Education from Penn State and an M.A. in Art Education from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Hanawalt has experience as a high school art teacher as well as an instructor of art history and art appreciation at various colleges and universities.

Hanawalt plans to continue research that both questions the nature of art in schools and supports early career art teachers toward imagining and implementing new visions of art education. Related to this effort, she is partnering with other higher educators, locally and across state-lines, to design a framework for art teacher inquiry groups. Hanawalt has also been pursuing historical research of an early 20th century art educator from Massachusetts, and will continue this work when she travels to New England again this fall. Hanawalt has published articles related to both of these areas of research in journals such as The Journal of Social Theory in Art Education and Studies in Art Education. 

Hanawalt relocated to Athens last year with her husband and three children, ages 13, 11, and 8. They currently reside in Oconee County.