University Park, Pa. -- Patricia M. Amburgy, associate professor of art education, has been selected as this year's Outstanding Art Educator for Higher Education by the Pennsylvania Art Education Association. She will receive the award at the PAEA annual conference in Pittsburgh, Pa., to be held Oct. 29 to 31.
Amburgy, who holds bachelor of fine arts and master of arts degrees in art education from the University of Cincinnati and a doctorate in education from the University of Illinois, has been teaching at Penn State since 1985 and is the academic adviser for more than 20 undergraduate students. She has taught numerous courses, ranging from "Introduction to the Visual Arts" to "History of Art Education." Her research interests include aesthetics, visual culture and the history of art education.
Amburgy has published articles and reviews in Art Education, Studies in Art Education, The Journal of Social Theory in Art Education, History of Education Quarterly and other professional journals. She has written chapters on the history of art education and historical research for the Handbook of Research and Policy in Art Education (2004), Women Art Educators V: Conversations Across Time (2003) and Framing the Past: Essays on Art Education (1990). She co-edited a book on the foundations of education, "Readings in American Public Schooling" (1980), and conference proceedings on the history of art education, The History of Art Education: Proceedings from the Second Penn State Conference, 1989 (1992). Amburgy is a member of the Pennsylvania Art Education Association, the National Art Education Association and the History of Education Society. She was associate editor of The Pennsylvania Art Educator, a journal of PAEA, from 1989 to 1994.