Ah Ran Koo

Dr. Ahran Koo is an Associate Professor of Art Education at California State University, Fresno. As an artist and art educator, she promotes the efficacy of art to address cultural and social awareness. Locally and globally, she focuses on community art and critical multiculturalism, encourages interdisciplinary collaboration through social engagement, and advocates culturally responsive/sustaining pedagogy.

Her research and teaching expertise include: community art; visual storying; art-based research; digital narrative; critical multiculturalism; and participatory action research. She has taught art at all levels, K-Higher Education, in USA, South Korea, The Philippines, China, Russia, and Peru. She has also exhibited her artworks including painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and installation for twenty years.

Dr. Koo has published numerous books, peer-reviewed journals, and book chapters in the most prominent journals and publishers in the field such as Studies in Art Education, Routledge, and International Society for Education through Art publication. She is the recipient of distinguished national and international awards, grants, and scholarships recognizing her scholarly and community engaged works such as National Art Education Association’s Pacific Region Higher Education Art Educator Award, Albert Schweitzer fellowship, California Humanities and National Endowment for Humanities Grant, National Art Education Foundation Research Grants, National Art Education Association’s Mary Rouse Award, Barbara & Sheldon Pinchuk Arts Community Outreach Grant, and Michael B. Salwen Scholarship.

Her professional service includes working as a President of Asian Faculty and Staff Association (AFSA) at Fresno State and an Executive Committee of Committee on Multiethnic Concerns, Asian Art and Cultural Interest Group, and Coalition for Feminisms in Art Education special interest groups of NAEA, and serving on the review panels and journal editorial boards for AERA, NAEA, and InSEA.

Dr. Koo received PhD in Arts Administration, Education and Policy from The Ohio State University; MA in Art Education from University of Florida; MFA and BFA in Korean Painting from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea.