EEIG Awards
New Ecology and Environment Interest Group Awards
At the 2022 NAEA National Convention, the Ecology and Environment Interest Group (EEIG) held its first business meeting. In some ways this meeting represented a historical moment—the interest group’s nearly one-year anniversary and inaugural meeting. During this business meeting, attending members voted to establish four interest-group awards. These awards will recognize outstanding contributions to the field of ecological and environmental art education at various levels. EEIG officers believe these awards will be instrumental in focusing attention on the important work interest group members and the broader art education community are doing and in increasing public awareness about the importance of ecological/environmental art education. EEIG awards will include an Outstanding K-12 Project, Dissertation or Thesis, Activist/Community Project, and Publication. These awards will be presented on a rotating basis, with two awards conferred each year.
Outstanding K-12 Project
This award recognizes an exceptional, ecologically engaged art curriculum or curricular unit at the K-12 level. Art educators working in K-12 schools will receive special consideration for this award, although art educators working in K-12 informal learning contexts will also be considered. More than one educator may be considered for a collaborative project.
Outstanding Dissertation or Thesis
This award recognizes an exceptional dissertation, thesis, or capstone project that addresses ecological/environmental art education. To be eligible for this award, graduates must have completed and successfully defended their dissertation, thesis, or capstone project during the eligibility period (if applicable). Only one individual may receive this award.
Outstanding Activist/Community Project
This award recognizes an exceptional project involving local communities in ecological/environmental art education or a project engaging the public in eco-activist art learning. This award is open to projects that unfold in informal learning contexts (e.g., museums, community centers) as well as formal school contexts. If multiple art educators played key roles in the same project, they all may receive this award.
Outstanding Publication
This award recognizes an exceptional publication (e.g., journal article, book/ebook, book chapter, visual essay) that addresses ecological/environmental art education. Dissertations and theses will not be considered for this award. If multiple authors contributed to the publication, they all will receive this award.
*Award Eligibility: NAEA members (EEIG members and non-members) who meet the established criteria are eligible to be nominated for these awards. EEIG Awards committee members cannot be considered as candidates for the awards they are reviewing. EEIG officers (not serving on the awards committee or not reviewing the award for which they are nominated) may be considered.
2024 Award Winners
Outstanding Publication Award
Joy Bertling, Ph.D
University of Tennessee
Outstanding Activist/Community Award
Stephanie Danker
Ohio State University
&
Pin-Hsuan Tseng
Pennsylvania State University
Joy Bertling, Ph.D
University of Tennessee
Outstanding Activist/Community Award
Stephanie Danker
Ohio State University
&
Pin-Hsuan Tseng
Pennsylvania State University
Previous Award Winners
2023
The Outstanding K-12 Project award recipient, Elizabeth Burkhauser, was recognized for her work through the Transforming Conflicts Hexagon project. These collaborative projects engaged teachers and students from across the country to address different environmental issues such as the causes and effects of agricultural pesticides and raw sewage pollution in local waterways affecting the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the environmental concerns associated with mine outfalls in Pennsylvania.
The Outstanding Dissertation or Thesis award recipient, Heather Hudgins Silver, was recognized for her dissertation titled: Attuning to the natureculture of schooling in the anthropocene: Ecologically-responsive art provocations with elementary students. Her research explored how a feminist new materialist art education pedagogy can foster a heightened sense of attunement to respond to ecological crisis. A key finding from Heather’s work was the effect of a Reggio Emilia-inspired practice of provocations that allowed students to explore their curiosity about the environment, producing more caring behaviors that can attend to the ecological crisis.