Bert Stabler
Assistant Professor of Art Education
Wonsook Kim School of Art
Office
CVA Center For The Visual Arts 203b
Office Hours
By appointment.
Office Phone
Email
Website
- About
- Education
- Awards & Honors
- Research
Biography
I spent nearly eighteen years in Chicago as a public school art teacher, art critic, curator, activist, and artist. In graduate school I got involved in anticarceral activist projects, and my dissertation was on a social practice project that helped to close an Illinois supermax prison. I publish on issues of race, disability, and incarceration in relation to education and other institutions.
Current Courses
ART 307.001 Art For Diverse Populations
ART 204.001 Arts Integration in Early Childhood and Elementary Education: Visual Arts focus
ART 499.001 Independent Research For The Master's Thesis
ART 451.001 Special Projects: Art Education
Teaching Interests & Areas
I see teaching as a form of expression (and learning as well). I endorse playful and emergent forms of collaboration, research, and making. I draw on my own experiences as a teacher and my related research interests in forming pedagogy and curriculum.
Research Interests & Areas
My research interests are in contemporary art, race, disability, and incarceration, with a focus on educational institutions.
Ph D Art education
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign-Urbana, Illinois
MA Art education
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
BA English, economics
Oberlin College
Oberlin, Ohio
College of Fine Arts Outstanding Researcher Award
ISU Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts
2025
Grants & Contracts
Conceptual Art + Teaching Grant. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. State. (2025)
Faculty Development Funding. Wonsook Kim School of Art. Illinois State University. (2025)
Faculty Development Grant. Wonsook Kim School of Art. Illinois State University. (2025)
Faculty/Staff Research and Travel Funds. Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts. Illinois State University. (2025)
Mills Grant. Wonsook Kim School of Art. Illinois State University. (2025)
Day Camp for Writers 2024: Three Days for Those with Child Care Responsibilities. Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. Illinois State University. (2024)
GTC Grant. Wonsook Kim School of Art. Illinois State University. (2024)
Instructional Innovation Grant. Center for Integrated Professional Development. Illinois State University. (2024)
Instructional Innovation Grant. Center for Integrated Professional Development. Illinois State University. (2024)
Deans Faculty Professional Development and Travel Award. Wonsook Kim College of Fine Art. Illinois State University. (2023)
Faculty Development Award. Wonsook Kim School of Art. Illinois State University. (2023)
Faculty Instructor Civic Engagement Learning Grant. Center for Civic Engagement. Illinois State University. (2023)
Instructional Innovation Grant. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (2023)
Melanie Buffington START Grant. Caucus of Social Theory in Art Education, National Art Education Association. Private. (2023)
University Teaching Grant. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (2023)
Deans Faculty Professional Development and Travel Award. Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts. Illinois State University. (2022)
Faculty Instructor Civic Engagement Learning Grant. Office of Civic Engagement. Illinois State University. (2022)
GTC Faculty Development Grant. Wonsook Kim School of Art. Illinois State University. (2022)
Gregor Fund. Wonsook Kim School of Art. Illinois State University. (2022)
School of Art Faculty Development Award. Wonsook Kim School of Art. Illinois State University. (2022)
University Research Grant. Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts. Illinois State University. (2022)
University Teaching Grant. Center for Teaching and Learning Technology. Illinois State University. (2022)
Harold K. Sage Fund Grant. Office of the Provost. Illinois State University. (2021)
Second Round-FY21 Dean’s Faculty Professional Development Award Program. Dean's Office, Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts. Illinois State University. (2021)
Teaching Innovation Award. ISU Center for Teaching and Learning Technology. Illinois State University. (2021)
Performances and Exhibits
Hello... Lee (Non-Binary Worm)
Bert Stabler, Mo Fizdale
September 2022 - November 2022
Bert Stabler, Mo Fizdale
September 2022 - November 2022
Untitled
Bert Stabler, Mo Fizdale
January 2022 - February 2022
Bert Stabler, Mo Fizdale
January 2022 - February 2022
Book Review
Himley, M., & Stabler, B. Review of Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography by Siobhan Angus. No. Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism 52.2 (2025): 87-92.
Stabler, B. BOOK REVIEW: ART EDUCATION FOR A SUSTAINABLE PLANET: EMBRACING ECOPEDAGOGY IN K-12 CLASSROOMS, JOY BERTLING (2023). International Journal of Education Through Art 21.1 (2025): 171-173.
Book, Chapter
Stabler, B. Letter to the Queen of Art Education. Travis, S., Smith, A., Hernández-Cabal, C. and Lucero, J. (EDs), Experiments in Art Education: How Do We Live Questions Through Art?. Routledge (2024)
Conference Proceeding
Stabler, B. False Flag. Jorge Lucero and Catalina Hernandez-Cabal (EDs), What Happens at the Intersection of Conceptual Art & Teaching?. Amsterdam University of the Arts (2023): 235-241.
Journal Article
Stabler, B. Hospital, Asylum, Prison, Gallery: Debility and Aesthetic Infrastructure. RACAR (Journal of the Universities Art Association of Canada) 49.2 (2025): 58-68.
Stabler, B. Data, disability, detour, détournement. Boni Wozolek and Walter Gershon (EDs). Journal of Curriculum Theorizing 39.1b (2024): 1-16.
Stabler, B. Disabling critique: Structural barriers to critical disability approaches in teacher education. Feminist Pedagogy 5.2 (2024): 5.
Stabler, B. Visionary barricades: Art class as memorial factory. Cala Coats and Amanda Alexander (EDs). Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education 41.1 (2024): 141-159.
Stabler, B. Art evading confinement: Abolition as Universal Design. Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education 40.1 (2023): 32-55.
Stabler, B., & MacPhee, J. Artist portfolio: posters about policing (interview with Josh MacPhee). Albert Stabler, Mira Rai Waits (EDs), Body Cam: Visual Regimes of Policing. Visual Arts Reseach 48.1 (2022): 5.
Stabler, A., & Waits, M. Introduction to the special issue. Albert Stabler, Mira Waits (EDs), Body Cam: The Visual Regimes of Policing (special journal issue). Visual Arts Research 47.2 (2022): 16.
Stabler, B., & Fischer, M. “There’s really almost nobody there who’s trying to make sense of it” (interview with Marc Fischer). Albert Stabler, Mira Rai Waits (EDs), Body Cam: Visual Regimes of Policing. Visual Arts Research 48.1 (2022): 12.
Long, R., & Stabler, A. “This is NOT okay:” Building a creative collective against academic ableism. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy (2021)
Stabler, B. A Sentimental Art Education. Studies in Art Education 62.1 (2021): 63-81.
Stabler, A. “Press Charges”: Art Class, White Feelings, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline. Journal of Social Theory in Art Education (2021)
Stabler, A. Institutional model: a modest proposal. PLATFORM (2020)
Stabler, B. The Contractual Aesthetics of Sharecropping in Black Conceptualism. Critical Arts 34.6 (2020): 41-55.
Stabler, A. White empathy and the educational neutralization of hip-hop. Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education 37 (2020): 231-247.
Stabler, B. Race and ‘Disability Passing’ in a Chicago Public School Art Classroom. International Journal of Art & Design Education 38.4 (2019): 867-877.
Stabler, B. Art Education and the Moral Injunction to be Oneself. International Journal of Art & Design Education 37.3 (2018): 377-386.
Stabler, B. Burning cotton: Art education and the unemptied dustbin of history. International Journal of Education Through Art 14.1 (2018): 117-129.
Stabler, B. The White Art Teacher's Burden: Aesthetics, Pedagogy, and Political Self-Awareness. Visual Arts Research 44.2 (2018): 15.
Stabler, B. A Missouri author in a Roman law court: Pudd’nhead Wilson as an allegory of colourblind empire. Law and Humanities 11.2 (2017): 245-265.
Stabler, B. A fluid frontier: slavery, resistance, and the underground railroad in the Detroit river borderland. Ethnic and Racial Studies 40.3 (2017): 567-569.
Stabler, B. Legislative art as policy and pedagogy. Marilyn Zurmuehlen Working Papers in Art Education 6.1 (2016)
Stabler, A. Mike Kelley and the Supermax: the traumatic architecture of ‘artificial memory.’. Third Text 30.1-2 (2016): 27-42.
Stabler, B. Punishment in Effigy: An aesthetics of torment versus a pedagogy of pain in Georges Bataille and Eric Garner. Photographies 9.3 (2016): 307-326.
Stabler, B. Stoic indulgence, gratuitous restraint: White feelings and campus art. Studies in Art Education 64.2: 198-218.
Other
Stabler, B. Cielo Saucedo / Body double. Institutional Model blog (2024)
Stabler, B. Darrin Martin:/ Binaural mirage. Institutional Model blog (2024)
Stabler, B. Disabled artist symposium, 4/10/24. Institutional Model blog (2024)
Stabler, B. Ariella Granados: Disabling utopia. Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2023)
Stabler, B. Disabled artist symposium, 4/5/23. Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2023)
Stabler, B. Dominic Quagliozzi: Medical history. Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2023)
Stabler, B. Em Kettner: Sickbeds, stragglers, and supplicants. Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2023)
Stabler, B. Emilie Louise Gossiaux: Working with the dreaming body. Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2023)
Stabler, B. Jennifer Justice: “Who is the person/ whose job it is to remove/ fingerprints from the Brancusis?”. Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2023)
Stabler, B. Jillian Crochet: Handle With care. Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2023)
Stabler, B. Joselia Rebekah Hughes: The gravity of slowness. Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2023)
Stabler, B. Mae Howard: Rituals of suspension. Institutional Model blog. Institutional Model (2023)
Stabler, B., & Salerno, A. Alex Dolores Salerno, "Arranged With Care". Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2022)
Stabler, B., & Slater, A. Andy Slater, "Invisible Ink". Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2022)
Stabler, B., & Crawford, C. Chloe Pascal Crawford, works in progress. Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2022)
Stabler, B., & Samuel, C. Christopher Samuel: Institutional Model. Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2022)
Stabler, B., Slater, A., Cubacub, S., Long, R., Samuel, C., & Cannone, G. Disabled artist symposium 4/29/22. Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2022)
Stabler, B. Gary Cannone, Text Samplers. Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2022)
Stabler, B., & Karuhanga, J. Jessica Karuhanga, "ground and cover me". Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2022)
Stabler, B., Sylvestre, L., & Jones, C. Liza Sylvestre + Christopher Robert Jones: Flashlight Project (excerpt). Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2022)
Stabler, B., & Long, R. Rebecca-Eli Long: The Role of Spite in Keeping You Warm. Institutional Model (blog). Institutional Model (2022)
Presentations
ARTS, JOY, AND RESISTANCE DURING IDEOLOGICAL RETRENCHMENT. 2025 Bergamo Conference on Curriculum Theory and Classroom Practice. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing. (2025)
Art, children, and the fascist politics of conspiracy. 2025 Bergamo Conference on Curriculum Theory and Classroom Practice. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing. (2025)
Disabled performance, crip time, and assessment as endurance. Art Education Research Institute Annual Symposium. Art Education Research Institute. (2025)
Making games with mundane tech: The Microsoft Office and Google Workspace edition. National Art Education Association Annual Convention. National Art Education Association. (2025)
No rubrics: Anti-ableist art assessment. SECAC Annual Conference. SECAC. (2025)
No rubrics: Anti-ableist art assessment. National Art Education Association Annual Convention. National Art Education Association. (2025)
Opening panel: Research clusters & roundtable discussion. Art Education Research Institute Annual Symposium. Art Education Research Institute. (2025)
Reading Deviant Matter with/in educational research. 2025 Bergamo Conference on Curriculum Theory and Classroom Practice. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing. (2025)
Urban environmental public art interventions with young people. International Journal of Art and Design Education 2025 Conference. International Journal of Art and Design Education. (2025)
Art about school: Creative research on the institution. National Art Education Association Annual Convention. National Art Education Association. (2024)
Black disabled women artists and the improvisation of confinement. American Educational Research Association Annual Conference. American Educational Research Association. (2024)
Building belonging through equity: Simple steps to make your lessons culturally responsive and relevant using contemporary artists. Illinois Art Education Association Annual Conference. Illinois Art Education Association. (2024)
Elevating underrepresented arts educators: Empowering voices & diversifying perspectives. Illinonis Art Education Association Annual Conference. Illinonis Art Education Association. (2024)
Guerrilla assemblage in the context of urban education. College Art Association Annual Conference. College Art Association. (2024)
Let the artists be your guide: Culturally responsive lesson /activity share. Illinois Art Education Association Annual Conference. Illinois Art Education Association. (2024)
“Queerness is in the horizon”: Performance art as prefigurative art education. Art Education Research Institute 2024 Symposium. University of Cambridge, Art Education Research Institute. (2024)
Stories from a special issue of Studies in Art Education on antiracist strategies and interventions. National Art Education Association Annual Convention. National Art Education Association. (2024)
Teaching critical disability art as embodied form. National Art Education Association Annual Convention. National Art Education Association. (2024)
The pedagogical aesthetics of Mel Baggs and Sonia Boué.. Neurodiversity in the Arts Symposium. University of the Arts, Helsinki. (2024)
Abolitionism as Universal Design. National Art Education Association 2023 Annual Convention. National Art Education Association. (2023)
Beyond the Paperwork: A Discussion on How to Better Assist Students with Disabilities in the Creative Classroom. 2023 UCDA Design Education Summit. UCDA. (2023)
Disability disclosure in academia: risks and benefits. Art Education Research Institute 2023 Symposium. Art Education Research Institute. (2023)
Panics and Pandemics: The aesthetics of resisting American eliminationism. Art Education Research Institute 2023 Symposium. Art Education Research Institute. (2023)
“Press charges:” Art class, white feelings, and the school-to-prison pipeline. National Art Education Association 2023 Annual Convention. National Art Education Association. (2023)
The aesthetics of refusal: From Dada to disability conceptualism. 2023 SECAC Annual Conference. SECAC. (2023)