SKIDMORE FACULTY

SUSAN BENDER is a Professor of Anthropology, with a specialization in archaeology.  Her initial interests in museums stemmed from questioning how the past is re-presented to museum goers, particularly those pasts that relate to people without a written history.  Since then she has increasingly used museum exhibits as a source for critical thinking exercises with her students and has become deeply engaged with research into the pedagogical potential of museums in a liberal arts education.  She teaches courses on a variety of topics in archaeology, including gender, laboratory and field research, and the archaeologies of North and Central America.   

ALISON BARNES is a Visiting Assistant Professor of English and Environmental Studies and Faculty Liaison to the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery.  She received an MFA in poetry from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and an MFA in photography from Syracuse University.  Her interdisciplinary background informs her current research into the pedagogical potential of museums in a liberal arts education.  She teaches museum-based writing classes at Skidmore and works with faculty from across the disciplines to deepen curricular engagement with the museum.