Dr. Zawadzki is an online Instructional Assistant Professor of Art History and the 2025-2026 WOW! Faculty Fellow.
Biography
Dr. Mary Frances Zawadzki holds a Master’s Degree in 19th century European Art from Hunter College, CUNY and a Doctorate in 19th century American Art from The Graduate Center, CUNY. She specializes in the history of illustration and the printed image, printing technology, and art and aesthetic education within public schools and the domestic interior. Her research focuses on alternative methods of art and aesthetic education like drawing books, illustrated monthly magazines, art magazines, art textbooks and art packs, and a variety of other printed material.
Dr. Zawadzki is deeply committed to innovative, high-impact pedagogy that is immersive, experiential, and student-driven, including game-based learning and flipped classroom models. Throughout her career as a professor, she has been an advocate for online and blended learning models because they enhance traditional learning through expanded access to a vast array of tools and information, and because these models provide access to non-traditional learners and learners with disabilities, thereby, democratizing education. She has published essays and presented papers on virtual learning pedagogy, educational technology, game-based learning, and Universal Design Standards. She was featured on a College Art Association podcast, "Preparing to Teach Quality Online Art History Courses,” and has contributed to the pedagogical blog AHTR Weekly. She authored the "Women Artists Extension Pack" for Gretchen McKay, Michael Marlais, and Nicholas Proctor’s Modernism -vs- Traditionalism: Art in Paris, 1888-1889, and consulted on Triseum’s educational art history video game, ARTé: Lumière.
Dr. Zawadzki previously worked in the Education Departments at the Museum of Modern Art and the Cape Ann Museum, and was a curatorial research assistant at the New-York Historical Society. She curated "First Impressions: The Print Trade in Children’s Books" (October 4, 2019 - January 3, 2020) for Princeton University’s Cotsen Children’s Library. As the Exhibitions Chair for the Salem Arts Association (2021-2023), Dr. Zawadzki curated and installed member exhibitions and the permanent history exhibition, "159 Derby Street History Project." She serves on the Emerging Scholars Award Committee and the Promotion Committee for the Nineteenth Century Studies Association.
Publications
Mary Frances Zawadzki and Ansley Simmons, eds. The Hydra: Generative AI in the Art and Design Classroom. Forthcoming 2026 (Under contract).
“Listen to the Words of the Great Mother: The Goddess Art of Mary Beth Edelson.” The Journal of American Culture(September 2016): 334-347.
“Lines from the Past: The Role of the Plaster Cast in Art and Aesthetic Education.” Art Students League’s Lines from the League (Spring 2016): 8-9.
“Lines from the Past: Fanny Cory.” Art Students League’s Lines from the League (Fall 2015): 22-23.
“Globe-Trotting Tots: St. Nicholas Magazine and Travel Imagery.” The Mid-Atlantic Almanack: the Journal of the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association (Fall 2011): 7-25.
Education
B.A. Art History, Hunter College (1995)
M.A. Art History, Hunter College (2006)
MPhil Art History, Cuny Graduate School and University Cent (2011)
Ph.D. Art History, Cuny Graduate School and University Cent (2015)