Faculty and Staff

Biography

Keri Watson is Assistant Professor of Art History in the School of Visual Arts and Design as well as a Graduate Faculty Member and Affiliated Faculty in the Texts and Technology Ph.D. Program at UCF. She teaches upper level courses in 19th- and 20th-Century Art, American Art, and the History of Photography, as well as special topics courses: “The Art of Walt Disney,” “Southern Folk Arts,” and "African American Art." The recipient of four National Endowment for the Arts Big Read grants, an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant, an Association of American Colleges and Universities Endeavor Foundation grant, and a Fulbright-Terra Foundation Award in the History of American Art, Dr. Watson's research focuses on the power of art to contribute to and challenge stereotypical representations of race, nationality, gender, sex, and dis/ability. Working at the intersection of queer theory, disability studies, and art history, her work explores the ways in which art de/constructs normalized sexist, ablest, and racist representations and spaces, challenges neoliberal hegemony, and offers techniques for an expanded and inclusive world view.

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
• History of Photography and Film
• American Studies
• Prison Education

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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. “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). http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/M35W9CjRNJwqZaK3rwsu/full 
• 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

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

Art Editor, Aquifer: The Florida Review Online

Courses

• Spring 2019
• Fall 2018
• Summer 2018
• Spring 2018
• Fall 2017