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Deborah L. Smith-Shank

Deborah L. Smith-Shank

Deborah L. Smith-Shank

Professor Emerita, Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy

smith-shank.1@osu.edu

Areas of Expertise

  • Semiotics
  • Feminist theory
  • Material culture

Education

  • Ph.D., Indiana University, Art Education/Curriculum & Instruction
  • M.S., Indiana University, Art Education
  • B.S., Indiana University, Art Education

Deborah L. Smith-Shank is a Professor and former Chair of the Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy at The Ohio State University. She is Emeritus Professor of Art at Northern Illinois University. She has taught art at all levels, K-Higher Education.

Her artwork is self-referential, and while she was trained as a painter, her current work primarily uses mixed-media. Her research is involved with material culture and social justice examined through semiotic and feminist lenses. She has published and presented her work nationally and internationally.

She is Past-president of NAEA’s Women’s Caucus and LGBTQ Caucus, she served on the Executive Board of InSEA for over a decade, and is currently President of the Semiotic Society of America. With Karen Keifer-Boyd, she was co-editor and founder of Visual Culture & Gender, an international, freely accessed, multimedia juried journal.