contact details
email: jb2445@columbia.edu
tel: (001) 212-678-3461

web site:
www.tc.columbia.edu
http://thinktankarts.typepad.com
www.tc.columbia.edu

Dr JOHN BALDACCHINO (Honorary Professor, RGU)
Associate Professor of Art and Art Education
Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA

Biographical statement
John Baldacchino is an internationally recognised scholar with particular research interests and publications in aesthetics & critical theory, contemporary art practice & contextual theory, and the philosophy and pedagogy of art in higher education (see CV and Publications – first web link). John is a former Reader in Critical and Contextual Studies at Gray’s, leaving in late 2004 to take up an Associate Professorship in Art and Art Education in the Department of Arts and Humanities at Teachers College within the prestigious Columbia University, New York. Whilst at Gray’s John successfully led the Masters course and was Director of Graduate Studies, encouraging Masters students to take up doctoral study both here and abroad. His research into aesthetics and critical theory, contemporary art practice and contextual theory is linked into a diverse set of doctoral projects at Gray's School of Art that explore discrete issues – ‘art as a means of cultural integration’ (Rodriquez-Remedi completed 2007), the 'open work' in public art (Wallace completing 2008) and ‘art as a narrative of alterity’ (Grassom completed 2006). At RGU he worked very closely with Dr Charles Juwah of DELTA on the development of courses in the PGCert Higher Education Teaching. John has maintained close links with the School making regular visits to the UK and Aberdeen.

Personal statement
I am currently engaged in US-wide discussions over the teaching of art in Art & Design Schools and Programmes, particularly within ThinkTankArts (see second web link). As part of this project I am working on various symposia that bring together art and art education colleagues from the US and beyond to discuss issues related directly to pedagogy of art in Higher Education. At Teachers College (which is Columbia University’s Graduate School of Education) I am currently tasked to enhance and develop the Doctorate in Education in the College Teaching of Art, which is a unique doctorate specifically intent to train students who hold a terminal degree in Art and/or Design (MFA) but who want to have specific training and do research in the pedagogy of Art in Higher Education. As part of this research I have already presented a number of papers in International conventions in the US, including the National Art Education Association and the College Art Association. I also work closely with colleagues from eminent schools of art in the US, including RISD, SVA, and the Chicago Institute.

I also work with my colleague Graeme Sullivan on Philosophies and Methods of Research in the arts and humanities. As part of this research we are launching (February 2008) an online journal for Graduate Students, entitled Spaces (see third web link). Spaces is the result of a two year project, Ways of Doing, details of which are found in: http://www.tc.columbia.edu/centers/waysofdoing/.

As part of my research in aesthetics and critical theory, I am currently writing two books: Makings of the Sea: On Mediterranean Aesthetics (forthcoming, Gorgias Press 2008) and a book on the Self and the Imaginary in Maxine Greene’s philosophy (projected completion 2008/9).

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