The School of Theatre and Dance is proud to share that Assistant Professor of Costume Design/Technology, Grace Cochran Keenan, has been awarded the Platinum Teaching Recognition Award for Costume History: New Strategies in Teaching.
For the past several years, Professor Grace Keenan has been working to expand the History of Costume & Textiles for Theatre course in the School of Theatre and Dance to decenter European narratives and expand beyond Eurocentric silhouettes. In March, 2022 Professor Keenan presented her work at the United States Institute of Technical Theatre (USITT) national conference in Baltimore, MD. She served as one of three panelists in the session "Costume History: New Strategies in Teaching," moderated by Professor Michelle Hunt Souza, costume design faculty here at Kent State in the School of Theatre & Dance. The panelists all presented the various ways that they have updated their clothing history curriculum to decenter European clothing history and why there is an urgent need to change the way clothing history is taught in universities today. This was followed by a question-and-answer session where attendees could ask how they themselves might start doing this work at their own institutions.
Professor Keenan received her Master of Fine Arts in Costume Design/Technology from Pennsylvania State University and her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Design/Production from Kent State University. Before joining the Kent State faculty full-time, Professor Keenan served as part-time faculty for four years. During that time, she developed six new courses for the costume area to help expand their offerings in costume production. Professor Keenan has worked as a freelance Tailor/Draper for the past six years with credits at Carnegie Mellon University, Great Lakes Theatre, The Cleveland Playhouse, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, and Baldwin-Wallace University. She has over 50 credits to her name as a Draper and Tailor including "Deathtrap," "Sweeney Todd," "Intimate Apparel," and "The Plague of Venice."
The Platinum Teaching Recognition Award recognizes scholarly dissemination and leadership in the area of teaching and learning. The objective of the teaching development awards program is to recognize actions that enhance teaching and learning at Kent State University. Instructors earn tiered awards for their efforts to learn about, implement, evaluate and investigate evidence-based instructional practices. All instructors at Kent State, including graduate students and faculty of all appointment types, are eligible to participate.
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