Gene Diaz

Gene Diaz is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences at Lesley University. She is a visual artist and ethnographer who teaches courses in curriculum theory, ethnographic research methods, and arts based action research. She works with doctoral students primarily as a research methodologist, and also as an artist/teacher/researcher. She presents her work on arts integrated curriculum methods at national and international conferences, most recently at the Curriculum and Pedagogy annual conference in October 2006, and at the UNESCO World Conference on Arts Education in March 2006.

In 2002 Gene spent six months in Medellin, Colombia as a Fulbright Scholar, collaborating in research and teaching in the faculty of education at the Universidad de Antioquia. She collaborated with DIVERSER coordinator, Zayda Sierra, in research on young children's perspectives of their lives in communities, home and schools through the use of dramatic play activities. An article about this research, Playing for Real: Drama in Colombian Schools, can be found on the Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism and Practice, Issue 9, on the Lesley website.

Gene is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, and the co-editor, with Martha McKenna, of Teaching for Aesthetic Experience (Peter Lang, 2004). With McKenna she also created the Curriculum Guide for Make Way for Ducklings for Narrator and Orchestra, an orchestral musical offering by Daniel Pinkham to accompany the popular book by Robert McCloskey. The development of this guide was supported by the Boston Landmarks Orchestra.

She holds an M.Ed and Ph.D. from the University of New Orleans in Curriculum.

Examples of graduate courses taught:

Arts-based Research; Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment; Critical Action Research; Dimensions and Methods of Cultural Exploration

Professional positions:

Special Assistant to the Provost

Associate Dean, Graduate School of Arts and Social Science (2003 – 2005)

Director, Division of Creative Arts in Learning (1999 – 2003)

Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism and Practice: Editorial Board (2001 – 2004)

Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy: Editorial Board (2006 – Present)

Membership:

American Educational Research Association

American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies