Rate My Professor Joni Acuff

Dr. Joni Boyd Acuff is a Professor of Art Education and Chair of the Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy in the College of Arts and Sciences at The Ohio State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Art Education from The Ohio State University in 2011 with a dissertation on a multicultural and social reconstructionist approach to art education for social justice. She holds an M.A. in Art Education from The University of Texas at Austin in 2007 and dual B.A. in Art Education and B.S. in Photography from The Pennsylvania State University in 2005. Her academic career includes serving as Assistant Professor in Arts Administration, Education and Policy at The Ohio State University from 2013 to 2017, Associate Professor and Chair of the Graduate Studies and Diversity Committees from 2017 to 2022, and Professor and Department Chair since 2022. Prior to her return to OSU, she was Assistant Professor of Art Education and Art History at the University of North Texas from 2011 to 2013.

Acuff specializes in critical multicultural art education, racial literacy, curriculum development, and social justice pedagogy in art education. She has co-edited influential books including A Love Letter to This Bridge Called My Back (University of Arizona Press, 2022), Race and Art Education (Davis Publishing, 2021), and Multiculturalism in Art Museums Today (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014). Key peer-reviewed publications feature Visual racial literacy: A not-so-new 21st century skill (Art Education, 2022), Afrofuturism: Reimagining art curriculum for Black existence (Art Education, 2020), Black feminist theory in 21st century art education (Studies in Art Education, 2018), and Theoretical considerations for art education research with and about underserved populations (Studies in Art Education, 2013). Her scholarship has garnered major awards such as the Manual Barkan Award for Scholarly Merit (National Art Education Association, 2020), J. Eugene Grigsby Award for Culturally Engaged Research (2019), Mary J. Rouse Early Career Award (2017), and Kenneth Marantz Distinguished Alumni Award (OSU, 2020). Acuff has served in editorial and leadership roles, including as an inductee to the Art Education Research Institute (2015) and Council for Policy Studies in Art Education (2017), contributing to equity and culturally responsive practices in the field.