Jim Woglom, a Ph.D. student in art education, was named an outstanding teacher assistant last year, and he hopes his education will allow him to continue “making art every waking day.”
Hometown:
Cranford, N.J.
High School:
Cranford High School
Degree objective:
Ph.D. in art education
Other degrees:
A.A.S. in fine arts from The Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, N.Y.; B.A. in studio arts (with a focus in drawing) and art history and criticism from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, N.Y.; M.A.Ed. in art education from the University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.
Expected graduation:
Spring 2014
University highlights, achievements, awards and scholarships:
I worked as a graduate assistant to professor Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor in the language and literacy education department in the summer of 2012, helping to organize poetry readings for her intensive summer poetry workshop.
Together with professor Stephanie Jones in the elementary and social studies education department, I have been working on a series of graphic representations of her teacher education research since 2010. These works have been published in an anthology entitled “Cultivating Social Justice Teachers,” the Harvard Education Review and forthcoming in Teacher College Record.
Together with colleagues in the art education department, the students in my class and the students and staff of the after-school program at Gaines Elementary School, I helped to design and create a collaborative mural that was permanently interred on the third floor of Aderhold Hall in the spring of 2011.
I received an Outstanding Teacher Assistant Award from UGA in 2012.
My art works have appeared on the cover of New South and the Journal of Adult and Adolescent Literacy, as well as in The Flagpole, Hot Metal Bridge, The Haiku Journal, Unsplendid and Smokelong Quarterly.
Current Employment:
I am a graduate teaching assistant at UGA, having been the instructor for Critical and Contemporary Issues in Art Education since fall 2010.
Family Ties to UGA:
My cousin Eileen Willett, a civil court judge in Arizona, is a UGA graduate.
I chose to attend UGA because…
I had attended the UGA study abroad program in Cortona, Italy, in the summer of 2007 and loved how the classes were run there. Rick Johnson, the program’s director at the time, and Leslie Snipes, a drawing teacher, got me excited about the prospect of art education as a life pursuit, and I am duly indebted to them for that.
My favorite things to do on campus are…
… making art and talking about art with students, teachers and colleagues.
When I have free time, I like…
… to play guitar, read, draw and spend time with my friends.
The craziest thing I’ve done is…
While student teaching in South Africa, I went shark cage diving off the coast of Cape Town.
My favorite place to study is…
… Walker’s, a coffee shop in downtown Athens.
My favorite professor is…
… Carole Henry. Professor Henry has guided me throughout my graduate education experience, helping me to understand all the differing interpretations of what art education can be, all the while encouraging me to pursue my own interpretation of the field.
If I could share an afternoon with anyone, I would love to share it with…
… Kurt Vonnegut. I realize that his ship has sailed, but he always made me think about strange things and laugh.
If I knew I could not fail, I would…
… continue to do exactly what I’m doing.
If money was not a consideration, I would love to…
… go to every museum and concert that would be physically possible to attend.
After graduation, I plan to…
… teach art wherever they’ll have me and make art every waking day.
The one UGA experience I will always remember will be…
In Cortona, there is a stone wall along the path to the top of the hill where the dorms for the university’s program are located. While there, I watched a number of sunsets and talked and played guitar from a bench along that wall. Those evenings have stayed with me since and likely always will.
