About

Dr. Joni Boyd Acuff is a Professor of Art Education at The Ohio State University, where she also serves as department chair and diversity chair in the Department of Arts Administration, Education and Policy. Her academic background includes a PhD in Art Education from Ohio State, an MA in Community Based Art Education from the University of Texas at Austin, and a BS in Art Education and a BA in Photography from The Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on culturally relevant pedagogy, critical race theory in art education, critical multicultural art education, and developing pedagogical and curriculum strategies that incorporate frameworks such as critical multiculturalism, critical race theory, Black feminist theory, and Afrofuturism. Acuff has extensive experience teaching both in traditional and non-traditional classrooms, working with diverse populations including students with special needs, LGBTQ students, and students from various racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. She has contributed to the field through peer-reviewed publications, co-editing a book on multiculturalism in art museums, and co-authoring a book on Race and Art Education. Her work emphasizes social justice and aims to recruit, admit, and retain students from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Pedagogy
• Anthropology
• Art
• Aesthetics
• Visual arts
• Psychology
• Literature
• Mathematics education
• History
• Media studies
• Art history
• Gender studies
• Law

Selected publications

• Beyond Words: The Daily Practices and Habits of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Art Education

  Art Education · 2025-11-02

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Performing Liberation: Blackness, Intersectionality, and the Work of Rashaad Newsome

  Art Education · 2025-11-02

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• AMP!ify | Agitate | DisruptCivic Engagement and Political Clarity in Art Education

  2024-09-04

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter shares how three art educators in higher education introduced zine-making to undergraduate pre-service art teachers as an arts-based intervention. The students sustained engagement with critical pedagogies to more deeply explore issues related to teaching and learning in the 21st century through the production of independent publications (zines). The chapter begins by discussing the current social and political landscape of teaching, specifically state legislative actions restricting the content in schools that seek to combat systemic racism and homophobia. Following, the authors present a brief history and contextualization of zines as collaborative and civically engaged practice, and a description of the project through which pre-service arts education students applied knowledge of critical pedagogies to arts teaching in the creation of a series of zines.

  PublisherDOI

• Artefacts of Resistance Existence:

  Intellect Books · 2022-07-29 · 1 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Scholar Collectives Advocating for Social Justice in Education

  Kalfou A Journal of Comparative and Relational Ethnic Studies · 2022-08-05 · 2 citations

  article

  This paper describes the development, goals, and activities of six scholar collectives that work toward social justice in education. Each group is connected to higher education and engages its members to speak out against social and structural inequities and to push for changes toward social justice in early childhood, K–12, and higher education and for the general public. Three collectives are location based: the Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education (CReATE), the California Alliance of Researchers for Equity in Education (CARE-ED), and the Hawai‘i Scholars for Education and Social Justice (HSESJ). The Education Deans for Justice and Equity (EDJE) is a national alliance of education deans and directors. The last two collectives, Radical STEMM Educators of the Bay Area (RadSTEMM) and the Coalition for Racial Equity in the Arts + Education (crea+e) are smaller organizations that focus on equity in education within their respective scholarly communities, STEMM and arts education. The six collectives featured here are part of a network of social justice collectives designed to share resources and collaborate with each other.

  PublisherDOI

• Antiracist Teaching as an Act of Love

  Art Education · 2022-04-28

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Visual Racial Literacy: A Not-So-New 21st Century Skill

  Art Education · 2022 · 7 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Psychology
  • Mathematics education
  • Pedagogy
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Editorial: Collectives and Coalitions - Building Justice and Equity Movements in the Arts

  Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education · 2021-12-30 · 2 citations

  editorialOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Writer's Corner

  Art Education · 2021-06-11

  article

  “I write to find out what I am thinking.I write to find out who I am.I write to understand things.“—Julia AlvarezIf you sit down to write, and you hear a voice in your head casting doubt and murmur...

  PublisherDOI

• It's Not Just About Hair: Visual Education and the Aesthetics of Racism

  Art Education · 2021-02-22 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  "It's Not Just About Hair: Visual Education and the Aesthetics of Racism." Art Education, 74(2), pp. 50–51

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Amelia M. Kraehe

  5 shared

• Dana Carlisle Kletchka

  2 shared

• Gloria J. Wilson

  The Ohio State University

  2 shared

• Courtnie N. Wolfgang

  2 shared

• Mary Mbongo Nangah

  1 shared

• Lois A. Yamauchi

  University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

  1 shared

• Margarita Berta-Ávila

  1 shared

• Sarah Travis

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• 2017 Mary J. Rouse Early Career Award
• 2019 J. Eugene Grigsby Award
• 2020 Manual Barkan award