Associate Dean for Research Ellen McMahon will present “Knowing and Being: Words and Pictures” as part of the Applied Intercultural Arts Research Speaker Series on March 20.
“Knowing and Being: Words and Pictures”
Professor Ellen McMahon
Slonaker House Living Room
March 20 @ 9:30a
Refreshments and snacks provided
In this talk, McMahon will discuss her work as the associate dean for research in the College of Fine Arts to promote arts practices as research, and its relationships to her 40 years of visual art practice.
Ellen McMahon
Ellen McMahon is a visual artist and professor of art and design in the School of Art at the University of Arizona. Since 2019, as the inaugural associate dean for research in the College of Fine Arts, she has led an initiative to integrate arts practices into the university research ecosystem, as an essential means of knowledge creation.
McMahon’s artwork addresses a diversity of topics, including the cultural construction of motherhood, the effects of climate change on regional water and forest ecosystems, and the intersection of memory, time and place. Her visual art has bee featured in numerous national and international exhibitions and her artist books, “No New Work,” “Alice’s Idea,” “Baby Talk Flash Cards” and “A is for Autonomy: Psycho-visceral Alphabet Cards” are housed in over 50 public collections. Her collaborations with environmental scientists and conservation organizations have been exhibited internationally in art and science venues and recognized with a Fulbright Fellowship.
Her publications include essays about design (MIT Press, Bloomsbury), technical papers about scientific illustration (ECHOSPERE), and the role of art in promoting environmental justice (NATURE), as well as writing about her art practice (Seven Stories Press, University of Arizona Press, Demeter Press, and DISTANZ Verlag.)
The AIAR Speaker Series seeks to promote critical and creative discussion about Applied Intercultural Arts Research practices through interactive presentations by AIAR affiliated faculty members and engaged community artists and scholars.
