Education

• Ph.D. Pennsylvania State University, 2017
• M.A. Seoul National University, 2012
• B.Ed. Daegu National University of Education, 2008

Biography

Hyunji Kwon was born in South Korea to a mother descended from North Korean refugees. Kwon worked as an elementary school teacher and holds a dual doctoral degree in Art Education and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the Pennsylvania State University. Kwon joined the University of South Carolina in the fall of 2017.

Courses

Graduate Courses:

• ARTE 701: Research Methodologies in Art Education
• ARTE 705 | WGST 796: Community Development in Art

Undergraduate Courses:

• ARTE 560 & 560P: Secondary Methods for K-12 Art Certification & Practicum
• ARTE 520: Art for Elementary Schools
• ARTE 101: Introduction to Art

Her research interests include trauma-informed art pedagogy, memory project, community-based art education, BIPOC alliance, K-16 connection, and mixed methods. Her work explores both local and global contexts with careful attention to the ethics of working with trauma-affected populations, grounded in her long-term community work with women living in transitional homes and survivors of sexual assault.

She has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles in preeminent journals, including Studies in Art Education, International Journal of Education through Art (IJETA), Visual Arts Research, Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, Art Education, Visual Culture & Gender, Feminist Studies, and the Journal of Gender Studies. Additionally, she has co-authored a book, Teaching Asian Art and Culture (forthcoming, Davis Publications), and contributed to many other book chapters. She has served as a co-editor for IJETA and as a reviewer for IJETA, Studies in Art Education, Visual Arts Research, Art Education, and Visual Culture & Gender.

In addition to many grants, she received the prestigious Peter and Bonnie McCausland Fellowship from the College of Arts and Sciences at USC in 2023. She is also the recipient of the 2021 NAEA Woman’s Caucus Mary J. Rouse Research Award, given to an emerging scholar with the potential to make great contributions to the field of art education, and the 2021 South Carolina Art Education Association Higher Education Award.

Her community work and exhibitions have been made possible through the Women’s Well-Being Initiative, a community outreach program in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at USC. Anyone interested is welcome to contact her at kwon7@mailbox.sc.edu or visit http://hyunjikwon.com.