Aziza Braithwaite Bey
Professional Title: Associate Professor
Areas of Academic Focus and Expertise:
Arts and culture, multicultural education.
Area of Work and Concentration at Lesley: arts, culture and cultural history, multicultural education
Representative List of Recent Courses Taught:
Art and Culture in Community
Cultural History through Storytelling
An Arts Approach to Multicultural Education
Interdisciplinary Arts History & Social Studies
Critical Pedagogy & the Arts
Social Action: Critical Pedagogy
Education: Ph.D., Union Institute; M.A., Fashion Institute of Technology; B.F.A., Pratt Institute of Technology
Representative List of Recent Publications / Exhibitions:
Aziza has compiled exhaustive, cutting-edge research on the Kemetians of Ancient Egypt, the Dogon of Mali, the Maya of Mexico, and the Tsalagi (Cherokee) of the Southeast United States into two compelling cross-cultural textbooks for teachers of students Pre-K through 12th grade: Culture and Nurturance: the Aesthetic Life of School Children and the companion textbook Pre-Columbian Contacts: Dragon Cultures of Africa and the Americas. Aziza designed and created the Great Women Leaders Doll Collection as teaching tools to accompany these texts.
Cultural historian Aziza Braithwaite Bey earned her PhD from Union Institute & University in Multicultural Education & Visual Culture, an MA from the Fashion Institute of Technology in Museum Studies, and a BFA from Pratt Institute in Merchandise Management. While studying Haute Couture in Paris, France, she also worked as a performing/recording artist. For most of her professional life, Aziza has been a teacher, fashion and costume designer, combining her love for teaching with her professional work on films, theatre, and designing under her own label for specialty stores and private clientele. Aziza has worked with teachers, public school students, and graduate students throughout the United States and is passionate about empowering teachers and young people PreK-12 about culture and history through the arts. Aziza was head of the Fashion Design Department at the Evelyn Hone College in Lusaka, Zambia, and at the College of St. Elizabeth, N.J., and has taught at the Virginia Commonwealth University, V.A., Parsons School of Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC.
abey@lesley.edu