Sara Ishii-Bear, Ph.D.

Contact

sishii@twu.edu
ART 102 A

Website

Biography

Sara Ishii is an interdisciplinary feminist artist/scholar with a background in Visual Art and Multicultural Women’s and Gender Studies. Her ongoing research examines creative interventions into social justice issues related to contemporary feminist art, Gloria Anzaldúan theorizing, and interpersonal violence. Ishii’s art practice employs painting and mixed media to investigate the inner dimensions of emotional and verbal abuse within the larger spectrum of interpersonal violence. Her work confronts the silence surrounding emotional and verbal abuse, marking its impact and acknowledging the resilience of victims/survivors.
Ishii holds a PhD in Multicultural Women’s and Gender Studies from Texas Woman’s University, an MFA in Art and Technology from the University of Texas at Dallas, and a MA in Feminist, Gender, and Women’s Studies from York University, Toronto. She has publications in El Mundo Zurdo 5: Selected Works from the 2015 Meeting of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa and Loading…Journal of the Canadian Games Studies Association. Ishii has exhibited work in the US and internationally including the Dallas Contemporary, Eugene Binder Gallery in Marfa, TX, Propeller Gallery in Toronto, ON, and the University of Guanajuato, Mexico. She has been a recipient of the Clare Hart DeGolyer Memorial Fund Award from the Dallas Museum of Art and the Summer Show Critic’s Choice Award from the Dallas Contemporary.

Education

Ph.D., Multicultural Women's and Gender Studies, Texas Woman's University, Denton, TX
M.A., Feminist, Gender, and Women's Studies, York University, Toronto, ON
M.F.A., Arts and Technology, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX
B.A., Arts and Performance, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX

Artistic Interests

Contemporary Feminist Ar;, Women-of-Colors Art; Gloria Anzaldúan Theorizing; Interpersonal Violence; Open Educational Resources; Feminist and Womanist Theories

Latest Articles

Feminist Pedagogy and Student Collaboration in Open Educational Practices in the Art History Classroom
International Journal of Art and Design Education, The (2024)
Sara Ishii-Bear

Creative Acts of Vision
Journal of Aesthetic Education (2023)
Sara Ishii

Sketching Spirit in Everything: Exploring Spirituality, Interconnectivity, and Creativity in Gloria Anzaldúa's Archived Drawings
Journal of Feminist, Gender and Women Studies (2022)
Sara Ishii

Open Educational Resources (OERs) and Social Justice-Oriented Pedagogy: Adaptations to Introductory World Art History Survey Courses
Art History Pedagogy & Practice (2022)
Sara Ishii

Applying Gloria Anzaldúa's Creative Works to Speculative Realism: Bridging Jane Bennett's Vital Materialism and Graham Harman's Object-Oriented Philosophy
philoSOPHIA: A Journal of transContinental Feminism. (2021)
Sara Ishii

Re)Marks of Abuse: Gender Violence in Contemporary Feminists of Color Art
MAI: Feminism & Visual Culture (2021)
Sara Ishii

Chapters

Epistemologies of Emotion: Explorations of Gloria Anzaldúa's La Facultad and Jane Bennett's Enchantment
in El Mundo Zurdo 5 | Aunt Lute Books (2016)
Sara Ishii

Professional Affiliations

• College Arts Association
• National Women's Studies Association

Honors & Awards

• Best in Category (Painting), East Lubbock Art House (2021)
• Outstanding Graduate Student Award, Texas Woman's University (2018)
• Graduate Experiential Scholar Program, Texas Woman's University (2016)