Linda Szabad-Smyth, PhD

"My art and my teaching inter-connect; most of my work is autobiographical. I am interested in life history research, narrative and memory work. My two main areas of research include community art education and teacher education. In community art education I'm looking specifically at service learning - putting our students out there so that they can learn first hand how to meet the needs of different populations, as opposed to just learning in a classroom.

I'm also researching the meaning of art education and art-making for disenfranchised populations and the introduction of participatory public art projects in the community. One important public art project that I was involved in, began with an invitation from an architect asking our art education students to help design privacy panels for the beds of the homeless shelter at the Old Brewery Mission in Montreal.  I brought together all of our community art education students and their instructors to work on this. At the end of the project we had a huge vernissage, and all the participants were really proud - it was a huge success! I'm looking forward to doing more projects of this kind in the future."

Education

PhD, McGill University

Maloney, Suzanne. Integrating the visual arts with a spiritually based curriculum: In, out and around the edges. Concordia University, 2010.

LeBlanc, Natalie. An investigation of the space between the painting and the photograph: De-constructing the process and reflecting on the two media that constitute my art practice. Concordia University, 2008.

Largo, Marissa. From the pearl of the Orient to Uptown: A collaborative arts-based Inquiry with Filipino youth activists in Montreal. Concordia University, 2007.

Baudouin, Suzelle. Une nouvelle approche pour l'enseignment des arts aux adultes basé sur le modèle 'Art for life'. Concordia University, 2007.

Selected publications

Szabad-Smyth, L. & Hampton, R. (in press). Community art for women. In Gagnon-Bourget, F. & Gosselin, P. (Eds.). Actes du colloque sur la recherche en enseignement des arts visuels. L'Université du Québec à Montréal. Montréal: CRÉA Éditions.

Szabad-Smyth, L., Beer, C. & Haggar, J. (2008). More than just a bed--Art Education  students' service-learning experience of designing privacy panels for the beds of a homeless shelter. CUexpo 2008 Proceedings, http://ucpsarnet.asu.edu

Szabad-Smyth, L. & Largo, M. (2008). When art meets community. In Gagnon-Bourget, F. & Gosselin, P. (Eds.). Actes du colloque sur la recherche en enseignement des arts visuels. L'Université du Québec à Montréal. (back-dated 2006). Montréal: CRÉA Éditions.

Szabad-Smyth, L. (2006). Struggling to teach art: Generalists' experiences as teachers of art. Canadian Review of Art Education (CSEA), Vol. 33, 1-23.

Szabad-Smyth, L. with contributions by *Chalas, A., *Duval, C., *Goodfriend, T., *Holt, A., *Largo, M., *Leblanc, N., *Reid, N. (2005). Personal narratives of spaces, places and displacement as revealed in studio works. The Canadian Art Teacher, 5(1), 6-15.

Szabad-Smyth, L. (2005). Self-study through an exploration of artful and artless experiences. In C. Mitchell, S. Weber & K. O'Reilly-Scanlon (Eds.).  Just who do we think we are? Methodologies for autobiography and self-study in teaching (pp. 69-80). London: Routledge Falmer.