Liora Bresler

Bio

Liora Bresler is a Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is also the Hedda Anderson Chair in Lund University, Sweden (Visiting); a Professor II at Stord/Haugesund University College, Norway; and an Honorary Professor in the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Other positions include distinguished visiting professorships at Stockholm University, Sweden, (2009-2011) and at the University of Haifa, Israel (1994/5). Her interdisciplinary work focuses on the arts and qualitative research methodology. In her various editorship roles in books and special issues of academic journals, she has sought to bring together intellectual communities across arts disciplines and cultures to address key areas, for example, early childhood, curriculum and cultural context in her co-edited book, The Arts in Children’s Lives (Bresler & Thompson, 2002; Kluwer); and embodiment in education in her book Knowing Bodies, Moving Mind, (Bresler, 2004, Kluwer).
Establishing new venues for interaction across disciplinary borders, Bresler founded, with Tom Barone and Gene Glass, the International Journal of Education and the Arts (2000-), and has established a book series for Springer that encompasses the various arts education domains (2002-present). Her International Handbook of Research in Arts education (Bresler, Springer, 2007), a project with 100+ contributors from 40+ countries, has identified 13 major areas (e.g., Curriculum; Evaluation; Creativity; Child Culture; Informal Learning; Social Issues; Technology; Spirituality) where each section features scholars from the respective fields of arts education to address disciplinary perspectives on this area.
Beyond her writing, teaching and service at the university of Illinois, her positions of visiting professorship in various countries have facilitated closer research interactions with faculty and doctoral students internationally. Visiting professorships include the Hedda Anderson Professorship at Lund University (2011-2015); Stockholm University (2008-2010); Professor II at Stord/Haugesund University College in Norway (2007-present); and Honorary Professor at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (2009-present).

Bresler has published 120+ papers and book chapters and has written and edited several books on the arts in education, including the International Handbook of Research in Arts Education (Springer, 2007), Knowing Bodies, Moving Minds (Kluwer, 2004); the co-authored Custom and Cherishing (1992); and the co-edited International Handbook of Creative Learning (Routeledge, 2011); and The International Handbook of the Arts in Education (Routeledge, 2014). Bresler has given keynote speeches, invited talks, seminars and short courses in thirty some countries in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Americas. Her work has been translated to German, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Finnish, Korean, and Chinese. Bresler is the editor of the book series “Landscapes: Aesthetics, the arts and education” (Springer) and is the co-founder and former editor of the International Journal of Education and the Arts (1999-). Teaching awards at the University of Illinois include the Distinguished Teaching Life-Long Career Award at the College of Education (2004), and the University of Illinois Campus Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching (2005). Other awards include Distinguished Fellow in the National Art Education Association (2010), the Distinguished Senior Scholar Award of the College of Education, University of Illinois (2014), the Edwin Ziegfeld Award for distinguished international leadership in art education by the United States Society for Education Through Art (2007), and The Lin Wright Special Recognition Award by The American Alliance for Theatre and Education (2007).