Meng-Jung Yang

Meng-Jung Yang (they/them/theirs) is a researcher, teacher educator, and artist whose primary focuses include Art and Design Education in PK-12, Community Art Education, and LGBTQIA2S+ topics in Art Education. As a queer immigrant, they are deeply invested in the messages created by and about minority people, and they believe that investing in empathy is essential to creating a future where all students can find their voice, be empowered to create art, and advocate for their passions.

They received their Doctor of Philosophy in Art Education at Northern Illinois University and MFA at National Taiwan Normal University. Meng-Jung was a practicing artist/designer who incorporated their art creation into research, highlighting visual literacy in art education. Their research has been published in Studies in Art Education and Visual Arts Research and focuses on decoding visual spectacles of queer representation in media and encoding visual messages for educational application.

They seek to incorporate their research into art curricula and create an experimental and inclusive learning space to empower pre-service educators, encourage critical thinking on diverse social issues in art education, and foster empathetic and enthusiastic teacher characteristics. A successful class is one in which every person, Meng-Jung included, has learned about themself as well as the content matter.