Biography
Keri Watson is the Director of the Florida Prison Education Project, Associate Professor of Art History, affiliated faculty in the Florida Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and Texts and Technology Ph.D. programs, and the faculty advisor for Black Man's Candor and Afro-Artistry at UCF. She teaches upper level courses in 19th-, 20th-Century and American Art, as well as special topics courses: The Art of Walt Disney, Southern Folk Arts, and African American Art. Dr. Watson's research, which focuses on the power of art to contribute to and challenge stereotypical representations of race, nationality, gender, sex, and dis/ability, has been recognized and supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Association of American Colleges and Universities, Fulbright-Terra Foundation, Southeastern College Art Conference, Society for the Preservation of American Modernists, and the Laughing Gull Foundation.
Education
- Ph.D. in Art History from Florida State University (2010)
- M.A. in Art History from Florida State University (2006)
- B.A. in Interdisciplinary Humanities from University of West Florida (2004)
Research Interests
- Modern and Contemporary Art
- American Studies
- Museum Studies
- Higher Education in Prisons
Selected Publications
Books
- Watson, Keri. Art of the
Non-Western World. Dubuque: Great River Learning, 2017.
Films
- Watson, Keri, and Tim Reid. One More Dollar. Film. 2017.
- Watson, Keri. The Burden of History. Digital Story, 2016.
- Watson,
Keri, Milos Adjinovis and Yson Dickson. Ward Hall: King of the Sideshow. Film, 2015.
- Watson, Keri, Milos Adjinovis
and Yson Dickson. Johnny Meah:
Czar of Bizarre. Film, 2015.
Articles/Essays
- Watson, Keri. “‘With a Smile and a Song’: Representations of People with Dwarfism in 1930s Cinema.” Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies 14:2 (2020): 137-54. Print.
- Watson, Keri. “Precarious Memory: Eudora Welty and the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum.” Eudora Welty Review 12:1 (2020): 9-26. Print.
- Listengarten,
Julia, Keri Watson, and Kate Kilpatrick. “Building Affective Solidarity and
Creating Healthier Communities through the Arts: Interactions, Elaborations,
and Interventions in Multiple Contexts.” The International Journal of Arts
Education 14:4 (2019):1-14. Print.
- Listengarten,
Julia and Keri Watson. “Staging Representations: Reflections on Performing
Activism in a Visual Art and Theatre Collaboration.” Scene 6:1 (2019):21-50.
- Watson, Keri.
“You’ve Got Art: Florida’s Post Office Murals.” In Florida Studies Review. Edited by Allyson D. Marino and Marcy L.
Galbreath, 88-101. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2018.
- Watson, Keri. "Curating Controversy in the Trump Era." Museums and Social Issues: A Journal of Reflective Discourse (2017).
- Watson, Keri, and Anastasia Salter. “Secret
Societies of the Avant-garde,” GLS 11 Conference Proceedings, eds. Kyrie H.
Caldwell et al (2016):
440-43.
- Watson, Keri, and
Anastasia Salter. "Playing Art Historian: Teaching 20th-Century Art through Alternate Reality Gaming," International Journal for Scholarship of
Technology Enhanced Learning 1:1 (2016): 100-111.
- Watson, Keri. “Disability in Art History.” Art History Teaching Resources Lesson Plans (2015).
- Watson, Keri. "'Before We Were Us, We Were Them': Curating Controversy," Journal of Museum Education 39 (2014): 96-107.
- Watson, Keri. “Parody
as Political Tool in Patricia Cronin’s Memorial
to a Marriage.” Mosaic: A Journal for
the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 43:2 (2010): 79-94.
- Fredericks, Keri. “The Country Cousin: Advocating an Arcadian America.” Athanor 26 (2008): 81-89.
Book Sections/Chapters
- Watson, Keri. “Picturing the Other: Disability and Difference in
Eudora Welty’s Photographs and Stories.” Teaching the Works of Eudora Welty: Twenty-first
Century Approaches. Eds. Julia Eichelberger and Mae Miller Claxton.
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2018.
- Watson, Keri and Patsy Moskal. “Scaling an Art History Reacting to
the Past Game for Use at a Large Public University.” Playing to Learn with Reacting to the Past. Eds. C. Edward Watson and Thomas Chase Hagood. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
- Watson, Keri. "Difference and Disability: The Photography of Margaret
Bourke-White." Disability and Art History. Eds. Ann Millet-Gallant and Elizabeth Howie. New York: Routledge, 2017.
- Watson, Keri. Eudora Welty’s Making a Date, Grenada, Mississippi: One Photograph, Five
Performances.” Eudora Welty, Whiteness, and Race. Ed.Harriet Pollack. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2013.
- Wylder, Viki Thompson and Keri Fredericks. “Evoke/Invoke/Provoke:
A Case Study of Judy Chicago’s Feminist Pedagogy, Vanderbilt University, Spring
Semester 2006." In Florida Without Borders: Women at the Intersections of the Local and
Global, edited by Sharon Kay Masters, 141-60. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars
Press, 2008.
Awards
- 2020 Laughing Gull Foundation Grant (Florida Prison Education Project)
- 2020 National Endowment for the Art Big Read (Silver Sparrow)
- 2019 Laughing Gull Foundation Grant (Florida Prison Education Project)
- 2019 National Endowment for the Arts Big Read (The Things They Carried)
- 2019 UCF Office of Faculty Excellence Scholarship of
Teaching and Learning Award
- 2019 UCF Office of Faculty Excellence Research Incentive Award
- 2019 UCF Office of Faculty Excellence Teaching Incentive Program Award
- 2018 National Endowment for the Arts Artworks Grant (Florida Prison Education Project)
- 2018 Pabst-Steinmetz Award for Arts and Wellness
- 2018 Southeastern College Art Conference Award for Outstanding Exhibition
- 2018 Association of American Colleges and Universities Endeavor Foundation Grant
- 2018 National Endowment for the Arts Big Read (Station Eleven)
- 2018 American Association of State Colleges and Universities Grant
- 2017 Fulbright-Terra Foundation Award in the History of American Art
- 2017 National Endowment for the Arts Big Read (The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears)
- 2017 Institute of Museum and Library Services Grant
- 2017 UCF Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award
- 2016 UCF Karen L. Smith Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning Faculty Fellow
- 2016 National Endowment for the Arts Big Read (The Grapes of Wrath)
- 2015 Society for the Preservation of American Modernists Grant
- 2015 National Endowment for the Arts Big Read (Their Eyes Were Watching God)
- 2015 UCF Office of Commercialization and Research In-House Research Grant
- 2014 UCF College of Arts and Humanities Research Initiative Program Grant
- 2013 Southeastern College Art Conference Award for Best Exhibition of Historical Materials
Activities
Director, The Florida Prison Education Project
Courses
| Course Number |
Course |
Title |
Mode |
Date and Time |
Syllabus |
| 10013 |
ARH2500 |
History of Non-western Art |
Web-Based (W) |
|
Unavailable |
| No Description Available |
| 11082 |
ARH3610 |
American Art |
Mixed-Mode/Reduce Seat-Time(M) |
W 09:30 AM - 10:45 AM |
Unavailable |
| No Description Available |
| 11073 |
ARH3888 |
Art of Walt Disney |
Web-Based (W) |
|
Unavailable |
| No Description Available |
No courses found for Fall 2021.
| Course Number |
Course |
Title |
Mode |
Session |
Date and Time |
Syllabus |
| 50688 |
ARH3888 |
Art of Walt Disney |
Web-Based (W) |
A |
|
Unavailable |
| No Description Available |
| Course Number |
Course |
Title |
Mode |
Date and Time |
Syllabus |
| 10234 |
ARH2500 |
History of Non-western Art |
Web-Based (W) |
|
Available |
| This course provides a survey of African, South and Southeast Asian, Islamic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Oceanic, South American, Mesoamerican, Caribbean, and Indigenous North American art. |
| 11441 |
ARH3610 |
American Art |
Web-Based (W) |
|
Available |
| This course presents an introduction to the major artists of America’s history from the Colonial period to the present and relates them to the social, political, and cultural contexts of the past 400+ years. |
| 11426 |
ARH3888 |
Art of Walt Disney |
Web-Based (W) |
|
Available |
| The goal of this course is to consider Walt Disney and his company in relation to art, society, and culture during the American Century. You will learn about Disney’s contributions within the realms of animation, film, and the theme park. A constant sub-theme will be the relationship between high art and popular art, as exemplified in the work of the Disney Studio. |
| Course Number |
Course |
Title |
Mode |
Date and Time |
Syllabus |
| 91985 |
ARH3631 |
African-american Art |
Web-Based (W) |
|
Unavailable |
| No Description Available |
| 81755 |
ARH3888 |
Art of Walt Disney |
Web-Based (W) |
|
Unavailable |
| No Description Available |
| 81547 |
ARH4430 |
19th Century Art |
Web-Based (W) |
|
Unavailable |
| No Description Available |
| Course Number |
Course |
Title |
Mode |
Session |
Date and Time |
Syllabus |
| 51373 |
ARH3888 |
Art of Walt Disney |
Web-Based (W) |
B |
|
Unavailable |
| No Description Available |
Updated: Jan 13, 2021
