Engaging the campus with creativity
By Laura Pohl, Contributing Writer
The walk from the Meta station to the Governors State University (GovState) campus is one of many reasons that Dr. Rebecca Siefert, Associate Professor, Art History, enjoys her role on the GovState faculty. “I love my walks to and from the Metra station and campus, which gives me a nice moment of peace in nature, surrounded by some amazing sculptures, and occasionally some deer, a snake, a flock of geese, or a praying mantis,” Siefert said.
Siefert earned tenure in 2024 after six years of teaching, research and publishing as a GovState faculty member.
Siefert is devoted to creative and engaging teaching, and among her most popular courses is the Sculpture Parks and Public Art class, exploring the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park. Other examples include Art History surveys that students take for Gen Ed credit and upper-level seminars like Gender and Sexuality in Art. Her goal is to make her classes fun and engaging, as well as educational. She received an Excellence Award at Convocation 2022, which recognized her outstanding teaching, research, and creative activity.
“My students often say that my classes are ‘the most fun but also the most challenging,’ and I see that as a win for learning,” Siefert said.
For fall semester, Siefert created sticker books and custom stickers for students to track their progress in class. “Teaching lets me get creative with my course materials and assignments,” she said. “I think we all learn better if we’re having fun and enjoying ourselves.”
Siefert also enjoys opportunities to help with events and projects that enrich students’ experiences, like organizing artist talks or panel discussions and making video projects. She has collaborated on the video program Ink About It!” and leads field trips to the Art Institute of Chicago, which GovState students can access at no cost.
Her research primarily focuses on the history and the historiography (the writing of history) of women in art and architecture. “What I do in my research—and in turn, in the classes I teach, like Women in Art—is try to correct the record and address the biases that impact our study of art and architectural history,” she said.
Siefert graduated from UW-Milwaukee with a degree in Painting/Drawing and French, earned master's degree in Art History in 2008 at Hunter College at the City University of New York (CUNY) and a Ph.D. in Art History and Film Studies from the CUNY Graduate Center.
GovState Newsroom: What motivated you to pursue your field of study?
Siefert: I’m a lifelong art maker, and have been drawing, painting, cartooning, and doing other creative activities since as early as I can remember. I went to school to get my Bachelor of Fine Art in Painting/Drawing, but after graduating, I shifted to studying the history of art. I found that I had a knack for writing about art. I still make art in my free time and often collaborate with professional artists on creative projects, which I find very fulfilling.
GovState Newsroom: What are some of the most interesting topics of study you have researched and/or presented in the classroom? How are they relevant to what’s happening in the world today?
Siefert: I’ve published on the artist and architect Lauretta Vinciarelli (1943-2011), who collaborated with her famous partner, artist Donald Judd, for many years but without due credit for her contributions. This kind of sexist oversight and exclusion was all too common for women of Vinciarelli’s generation and earlier, unfortunately. [White, cisgender] men were almost exclusively shown in art galleries and museums, and they were also typically the ones writing the history of art and architecture into our textbooks, which limits the variety of perspectives. I have also published and presented research on women’s impact as residents and activists on public housing design and space use.
What I do in my research, and in the classes I teach, like Women in Art, is try to correct the record and address biases that impact our study of art and architectural history. Today, we’re seeing the culmination of decades of movement towards a more widespread cultural reckoning, as scholars and activists hold our institutions accountable for their actions, especially when it comes to exhibitions, visibility, access, and abuse of power. Who is included in museum collections, who is not—and who gets to decide?
GovState Newsroom: What motivates you as a faculty member?
Siefert: My students motivate me more than anything else, hands down! By and large, GovState students are caring, thoughtful, critical thinkers eager to learn and connect with one another. Many are also deeply engaged in and informed about social justice issues, and it has enriched our conversations in the classroom about the role of art as a tool for social change and community-building.
GovState Newsroom: What is your favorite book? Streaming show on television?
Siefert: My favorite book has always been “Harold and the Purple Crayon” (1955). I love the writing, but especially the drawings and graphic design of the book itself; it’s truly a beautiful work of art. For all of its poetic simplicity, it speaks to complex themes about creative drive, curiosity, loneliness, and the ways that art can take us on an adventure and help us create the world we want to live in.
As for television shows, I have a lot of favorites depending on my mood and attention level, but “The Simpsons” has always been close to my heart. I remember when it first appeared on “The Tracy Ullman Show” as a series of shorts, and my brother and I would watch it with my parents. When it became its own show in the ‘90s I was obsessed and used to tape it off of television to practice drawing the characters. But a more recent TV show that I’ve enjoyed is Julio Torres’s “Fantasmas,” which is one of the most original, bizarre, and visually interesting TV series I’ve seen in a long time.
GovState Newsroom: What do you love most about GovState?
Siefert: At the risk of repeating myself: the students! Coming to class is the highlight of my week and makes this job professionally and personally satisfying.