NSCAD University is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Nicole Lee (she/her) as Assistant Professor, Art Education, Division of Art History and Contemporary Culture.
Dr. Lee is an a/r/tographer (artist/researcher/teacher-educator) and curriculum theorist whose expertise is in artmaking and philosophizing in tandem to advance concepts.
“I’m thrilled to join NSCAD’s vibrant art community and engage with the diverse mediums, creative forms and personal practices of both students and faculty,” said Dr. Lee. “NSCAD’s innovative Master of Art in Art Education program is well aligned with my artistic, research and teaching pursuits and I’m inspired by the abundant possibilities presented through the intersection of these realms.”
Dr. Lee’s new position is part of NSCAD’s cohort hiring initiative to support the ambitions of equity-deserving artists, designers, and academics as well as to diversify NSCAD’s faculty. As a first-generation, Chinese Canadian woman scholar, Dr. Lee acknowledges the responsibility to uphold the values of social justice and anti-racist education, advance equity and accessibility, and build community based on foundations of ethical relationality and care.
“I strive to hold space for an Aokian tensionality of difference to understand the needs of marginalized students, and to support individuals’ flourishing as they embark upon their unique paths, and to imagine an inclusive commons together with others,” she said.
Dr. Lee’s research is a living inquiry that involves arts-based and contemplative practices, deep listening for inspirited curricular moments, and attunement with the affective rhythms surrounding people, histories and places.
“I look forward to walking alongside students in their journey of becoming and their search for meaning through creative, phenomenological, conceptual, and philosophical approaches,” she said, noting how one can—through art—contemplate upon and connect deeply with important matters while situated in specific spatial and temporal contexts.
Dr. Lee works to widen access to art education research and practices for diverse educational communities by hosting workshops and delivering presentations across North America and internationally. She also publishes work on art education, curriculum studies, and ABER methodologies, including Lingering with the Works of Ted T. Aoki: Historical and Contemporary Significance for Curriculum Research and Practice and Walking with A/r/tography.
In 2022, her dissertation research was recognized by the Elliot Eisner Doctoral Research Award in Art Education, the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies Dissertation Award, and the Ted T. Aoki Prize for Outstanding Dissertation in Curriculum Studies.
Dr. Lee holds a Doctorate in Curriculum Studies, with a concentration in Art Education, from the University of British Columbia. She earned a Master of Education Degree, a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree, and a Bachelor of Education Degree from York University.
Headline photo: Dr. Nicole Lee