Lisa Donovan
Professional Title: Associate Professor
Areas of Academic Focus and Expertise:
Aesthetic education and arts based research; theater as a tool for social change and how theater education can develop a sense of voice and identity in adolescents.
Area of Work and Concentration at Lesley: Arts education; integrated arts; research; drama
Representative List of Recent Courses Taught:
Multiple Literacies
Critical Pedagogy through the Arts
Drama and Critical Literacy
Educator Inquiry Thesis and Project
Integrated Teaching through the Arts
Integrated Arts Seminar
Arts Based Research
Multiple Literacies
Education: Ph.D., Lesley University; M.S., Boston University; B.A., State University of New York, Oneonta
Representative List of Recent Publications / Exhibitions:
- Donovan, L. Making the aesthetic experience accessible in the classroom: Unlocking language for understanding, In Mckenna & Diaz (Eds.), 2004 Teaching for aesthetic experience: The art of learning, published by Peter Lang
- Donovan, L. (2005). Rehearsing life: Exploring alternatives and possibilities through theater, In Powell & Marcow-Speiser (Eds.) Little Signs of Hope: Art and Social Change. published by Peter Lang
- The Voices that Matter, Theater script performed at Augusta Savage Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2008
- Imagination Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, July, 2009
- Arts Education Partnership, A review of findings from a Ford Foundation research grant, October 2009.
A theater artist and arts-based researcher, Dr. Donovan teaches arts integration, action research, and arts-based literacy courses. She has broad experience working as an arts educator and administrator in organizations that include Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, the Berkshire Opera Company, University of Massachusetts' Department of Theater, and Boston University's Theater, Visual Arts and Tanglewood Institutes. She was formerly Executive Director of the Massachusetts Alliance for Arts Education. She is co-principal investigator of the Integrated Teaching through the Arts Assessment project funded by the Ford Foundation.
ldonovan@lesley.edu