Dedicated South Carolina educator Andrea Elliott commuted regularly to the Lamar Dodd School of Art from Spartanburg for the first few years of her doctoral studies in art education. The onset of the pandemic in 2020 prompted a shift to completing her degree virtually.

However, in the first week of the fall 2022 semester, Elliott successfully defended her dissertation, “Gendered Threads: A Speculative Analysis of the Spacetimemattering of Women's Fiber Crafting” in person at the School of Art. As she elaborated her analysis on women who engage in fiber crafting through a lens beyond just the tools and process to reveal all of the other "materials" that were a part of the process, such as time, space, and gender, she spoke to members of her committee that she had not, up until that point, met in person.

A recipient of a Dean's Award from the Graduate School at UGA and a South Carolina Higher Education Art Educator of the Year, Andrea Elliott is the School's most recent PhD in art education. Below, Elliott shares some reflections on her time as a graduate student at the School of Art.

On why Elliott pursued a PhD in Art Education

I reside in Spartanburg, SC, I have a BA and MA in Art Education, and now a PhD in Art/Art Education. I taught in the public schools in SC for 10 years as an art educator, and have been teaching in higher education at Converse University for 8 years. I am also a studio artist, and my media is oil and acrylic and pen and ink/watercolor illustrations of homes/architecture.

To be honest, I knew I wanted my terminal degree to encompass art and art education because I wanted to be highly qualified in my field, and UGA is the closest program to me that offers a PhD in Art and Art Education. 

On how the curriculum and community in the Art Education program influenced Elliott's research 

I have been so fortunate to work with some amazing professors in the Art Education department at UGA. They have really pushed me to not only think outside of the proverbial box but have served as wonderful mentors that have influenced not only my work at UGA, but my role as a professor at my University as well. I have connected with so many art educators in my program, and have formed rich friendships with so many of them. Those connections have truly made me feel like a part of this community even though I wasn't a full-time student and lived over 2 hours away from campus. Lastly, the curriculum and classwork have exposed me to new perspectives along with innovative ways of teaching.

On Elliott's experience as a long-distance commuter student

Ha! Some commutes were better than others as I often fought traffic that made me late for class, or drove home when I was tired or didn't feel well. I will say that I have visited every QT from Spartanburg, SC to Athens, GA. I always needed a coffee fix to keep me awake on the long drive home. 

On how the pandemic affected Elliott's studies

Wow. This is a loaded question. I really could write a dissertation on just the effects of the pandemic, but overall, I will say I had to learn to shift rather quickly and adapt to new ways of doing research. For example, my entire study shifted to an online format where I utilized email, Zoom interviews, and social media accounts in order to retract data. 

Takeaways and Acknowledgments

Overall, this program was very challenging, and I do feel very prepared to enter the next phase of tenure track teaching at my University. I would like to thank Drs. Bustle and Hanawalt for their mentorship and friendship along the way. Lastly, my committee members (Dr. Hanawalt, Dr. Roulston, and Dr. Flint) are amazing women, and I appreciate the time and effort they have poured into making certain that I was prepared to take on the world of research. I have made lifelong friends through this program, and I will always feel a very strong connection to UGA and the state of GA.