UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Luke Meeken, assistant professor of art education at Miami University of Ohio, and Xalli Zuniga, co-founder of the community arts collective Paro de Barrio, which focuses on grafting ecology, art and social justice, are the 2024 recipients of the Harlan E. and Suzanne Dudley Hoffa Dissertation Award in Art Education. Meeken and Zuniga earned their doctorates in art education from Penn State in 2023.
The award was established by the late Harlan E. Hoffa, who earned a doctorate of education from Penn State in 1959, and was a professor emeritus of art education and former associate dean of research and graduate studies in the College of Arts and Architecture, and the late Suzanne Dudley Hoffa to honor and recognize graduate students whose dissertation displays professional relevance, scholarly excellence and clarity of presentation in the art education program in the School of Visual Arts.
Meeken’s dissertation work examined the creation of digital places through a materialist, anticolonial and critical place studies lens. He studied how digital places, despite not having the same relation to colonial histories as physical places, still have material qualities that participate in the habituation of settler-colonial sentiments and actions. His study specifically examined the re-crafting of an online curriculum resource focused on developing 3D digital environments with middle schoolers. With the re-crafted curriculum, students developed significantly more complex digital place artworks.
In his position at Miami University, Meeken collaborates with the campus’ Myaamia Center. The university has a special relationship with the Myaamia people, on whose lands it stands. This collaboration has allowed preservice teachers in his classes to collaboratively develop curriculum with Indigenous scholars. This curriculum centers Myaamia histories and contemporary creative life and is then taught in area public schools by the students who co-developed it.
Meeken said the faculty on his dissertation committee have made a lasting impact on his scholarship and his values as a teacher and researcher.
“My receipt of this award would not have been possible without the generative critique and support provided by Dr. Aaron Knochel, Dr. Michelle Bae-Dimitriadis, Dr. Karen Keifer-Boyd and Dr. Mark Kissling," he said. "It is also a joy to learn that this year I share this award with Xalli, a scholar, artist and classmate whose work is so vital and so exciting!”
Zuniga wrote her dissertation as a “love letter to the Earth,” offering a novel approach to address the environmental crisis by drawing inspiration from mycorrhizal fungi. This work is not merely metaphorical but presents a tangible model for a new politics of care grounded in the principles of symbiopoiesis and homeokinesis. Symbiopoiesis underlines the collective process of life creation, emphasizing interconnection and mutual benefit among organisms. Homeokinesis, on the other hand, focuses on the dynamic balance and self-regulatory capabilities of living systems in ever-changing environments.
Through an arts-based research method that Zuniga called “Drawing Out,” which blends drawing with dialogue, she delved into the experiences of burnout among a group of millennials. Employing Latina/x feminist concepts, Zuniga advocated for tactics to forge caring coalitions among the exploited humans and more than humans, aiming to resolve the ecological care crisis born from one-sided extraction. This endeavor was designed to be a replicable model, and was pursued through artistic methodologies, marking a unique mycorrhizal intersection of art, ecology and feminist theory.
As a co-founder of the community arts collective Paro de Barrio, Zuniga is bringing to life the concepts from her dissertation, partnering with Indigenous (Hñähñu) women mushroom foragers in Central Mexico’s Amealco region. This venture is funded in part by a grant from the Diaspora Solidarities Lab, a Black feminist digital humanities initiative led by Yomaira Figueroa, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Her efforts are geared toward building the project “The House of Mushroom/'Ngu Hie'the,” a community space where the fungal world takes center stage. In its early stages, the venture includes an interactive website, a residency program and a restaurant where mushroom foragers serve dishes crafted from local mushroom varieties.
“It's a model of sustainable living and a beacon of hope in tackling environmental challenges, particularly within the Mexican context,” Zuniga said.
According to Zuniga, receiving tangible support for her endeavor has been key.
“It not only advances the project but also provides me with much-needed relief during my job search, a task made more challenging by my immigration status," she said. "I am immensely grateful for this award and the breathing room it has afforded me. My time at Penn State presented significant cultural challenges, yet I am deeply thankful for the support from my colleagues — including Luke — my extraordinary chair, Dr. Karen Keifer-Boyd; my committee members, Dr. Wanda Knight and Dr. Michelle Rodino-Colocino; and my close mentor, Dr. Mariana Ortega.”