Sandra Bird

Professor | Art Education
PhD, Florida State University
MFA, Indiana University
BA, Rollins College

Biographical Information
Dr. Sandra Bird, Professor of Art Education, regularly teaches art education courses involving intercultural art education and curriculum and frequently teaches art history courses related to Islamic art and architecture. Every ARED 4410 and ARED 6200 curriculum course hosts a service learning partnership with local schools - one of which has been highlighted by a syllabus on the Campus Compact website since 2003. In these courses students design, facilitate and assess intercultural units as part of their instruction. Over the years Bird has won several teaching awards, including from the KSU College of the Arts (COTA), the Georgia Art Education Association, The Istanbul Center of Atlanta, as well as the Outstanding Professor Award from COTA in (2013).

Her recent publications include a monograph, Creating a legacy of understanding: The Istanbul Center’s art and essay contest. Bird (2011) edited this collection of essays from various stakeholders in the project and then published the work in the Middle East Institute Viewpoints Collection (an electronic monograph publication issuing from the Middle East Institute of American University in Washington. Bird also wrote several articles with this published edition. She has written chapters for other edited books, including “Teaching Islamic Aesthetics” in Jason Tatlock’s Middle Eastern History and Culture and “Iranian, Go Home!” in Muslims in American Popular Culture, edited by Iraj Omidvar & A. Richards and published by Praeger/Greenwood Press. Among her several journal articles, Bird (2014) has published internationally with “From floating flowers to opening doors” in Sahar El Azhar’s edition of Crossing Borders: A Transatlantic Collaboration, published in Casablanca by Force Equipement and the Ben M’sik Community Museum and in KSU’s (2015) Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy,Pedagogy,Perspective with her article, “Intercultural connectivity: Intertwined through Islamic design”. Bird (2012) was also interviewed on “Islamic Art” for the Islamic Speaker’s Bureau of Atlanta’s Video Series, “Meeting Your Muslim Neighbor” (produced and aired by the Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters, Inc.).

Bird has also received several KSU grants including a CETL Scholarship of Faculty Sabbatical Award for Spring 2011, a Tenured Faculty Scholarship/Creative Activity Enhancement award of  $15,000 in 2007, and an Incentive Grant Award of $8000 in 2005.  She has also received several small international travel grants through the KSU “Year of” Faculty Development Seminars. Most recently Bird (2016) received a 17,500 KSU Division of Global Affairs Strategic Internationalization Grant, "From Mecca to America: Cross-cultural Exchange in the Art Classroom”, that supports the co-teaching of two Islamic art related courses within the KSU SOAAD program with Dr. Mona Hussein from Alexandria University, Egypt.  An exhibition of resulting works with this project was displayed in KSU’s Wilson Gallery from May 30 through July 30, 2017.  Bird presented this project at the International Society of Education Through the Arts at the 2017 World Congress Meeting in Daegu, South Korea in August 2017.