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      Upstander Award-winner to speak Sept. 7 on K-12 social-justice art curriculum

      Art education professor Linda Hoeptner Poling to be honored and present a talk titled 'Linda Stein Social Justice Art: Upstander Curriculum for All in K-12'

      Upstander Awardee Linda Hoeptner Poling stands in front of one Linda Stein’s tapestries, “Raymond Learsy's Mother Insists on Leaving Luxemburg in 1940, Bringing Her Family to America Where She Receives a Perfunctory Nazi Letter of Property Seizure 976,” on exhibition at Kent State University’s Center for Visual Arts Gallery. Credit: image provided. All Rights Reserved.

      UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Linda Hoeptner Poling, associate professor of art education at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, is the 2022 recipient of the Linda Stein Upstander Award administered by Penn State University Libraries. She will be honored and present her K-12 upstander curriculum from the exhibition “Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females” at Kent State University’s Center for Visual Arts Gallery with artist Linda Stein, at 7 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, Sept. 7, and via Zoom.

      The Linda Stein Upstander Award honoring Joyce and Diane Froot annually supports social justice activists from around the world whose artistic or scholarly work promotes upstander activities.

      Hoeptner Poling also will present a talk titled “Linda Stein Social Justice Art: Upstander Curriculum for All in K-12.” Hoeptner Poling’s curriculum project deepens students’ understandings of their roles in social justice activism, what being "a brave upstander" has meant in the past and how to activate it in today’s cultural environment.

      The curriculum, based on deep archival research with the Linda Stein Art Education Collection in the University Libraries’ Eberly Family Special Collections and at Smith College, is a series of comprehensive lessons that educators can apply in their teaching. Each lesson references Universal Design for Learning principles, including multiple means of representation, expression and engagement.

      In describing her project, Hoeptner Poling wrote, “The multi-age curriculum, which frames social justice work that addresses bullying, bigotry, racism, sexism, homophobia and ableism, is the ideal pathway in a time in which such intersectional work has never been more important for preserving democracy.”

      The Linda Stein Upstander Award hybrid ceremony and lecture, held online and in person, is free and open to the public. Advance registration is required for a Zoom link, which will be sent via email to registrants on the day of the event.

      Interested applicants for the Linda Stein Upstander Award honoring Joyce and Diane Froot may visit the online application site for more information.

      Last Updated September 5, 2023

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