Art, Graphic Design & Art History

Dr. Borland is an art historian specializing in the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Dr. Borland is also the Fae Rawdon Norris Professor of the Humanities and founding Director of the OSU Center for the Humanities, and previously led the Digital Humanities Initiative on campus. She has served in a variety of other positions while at OSU, including as Interim Department Head, Associate Department Head, Director of Graduate Studies in Art History, and the College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Fellow for Community Engagement. She is a 2019 graduate of the HERS Institute, a higher education leadership development program. Along with Dr. Nancy Thompson (St. Olaf College), she is managing co-editor of the open access online journal Different Visions: New Perspectives on Medieval Art. She was a founding member of the Material Collective (2013-2024), a collaborative group that sought to expand the form of and avenues for academic work, in part through prioritizing creativity, adventurousness, and activism in art historical research and writing. 

She is the author of Visualizing Household Health: Medieval Women, Art, and Knowledge in the Régime du corps (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2022; paperback ed. 2024), recipient of the Best First Book of Feminist Scholarship on the Middle Ages (2024), Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship and the 2025 Karen Gould Prize in Art History from the Medieval Academy of America.

Research Interests:
medieval medical and scientific imagery, medievalism and collecting, materiality, the corporeal experience of objects and spaces, audience and reception, representations of gender, digital humanities, engaged art history

Karen Greenwalt is an art historian whose research and teaching focus on global contemporary art. Greenwalt's current project, tentatively titled Framing the Islamic: Art, Nationhood, and the Migrant Body, engages with and problematizes contemporary framings of the Islamic. The project explores artists from the so-called Islamic world, whose work facilitates not only a deconstruction of the Islamic in art history, but also the ways Islam has been claimed and positioned by a variety of forces—from sensationalist portrayals in the global media, to reactionary politicians, and Islamic fundamentalists. At OSU, she teaches courses on modern and contemporary art history, as well as museum and exhibition studies.

I am graphic designer, educator, and design activist whose work centers on visual semiotics as a critical lens for analyzing visual media, symbolism, and meaning-making. Shaped by experiences of migration, and Persian culture, my scholarship and practice interrogate authorship, cultural specificity, and Western-centric frameworks within design education and visual culture.

Andy Mattern is a visual artist working in the expanded field of photography. His photographs and installations dissect the medium itself, reconfiguring expectations of photography's basic ingredients and conventions. His work is held in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the New Mexico Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others. His photographs and exhibitions have been reviewed in publications such as in Artforum, The New Yorker, Camera Austria, and Photonews. Currently, he serves as Department Head, Vennerberg Endowed Chair in Art, Hargis Professor and Director of the Doel Reed Center, and Associate Professor of Photography at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater. He holds an MFA in photography from the University of Minnesota and a BFA in studio art from the University of New Mexico.

Nick Mendoza is a Chicano designer and educator. He received a BFA in Graphic Design from Brigham Young University and an MFA in Graphic Design from the University of Utah.

Nick believes in the power of design to spark meaningful conversations about pressing societal issues. He is a proponent of design for good and tries to incorporate it whenever possible. His portfolio includes themes of space, place, and the human experience.

Nick's work has appeared in international exhibitions, including the United States International Poster Biennial (USIPB), The Bolivia BICeBé Poster Biennial, The Peru Design Biennial and The Intercontinental Biennial. He has had work published in prestigious publications, including Communication Arts, Graphis, Creative Quarterly, Graphic Design USA, Print Magazine, Just Design (HOW Books), Design School Confidential (Rockport Publishers), and the UCDA Designer Magazine.

Nick's work is part of the permanent collections at The University & College Designers Association (UCDA) in Smyrna, TN, the Poster House Museum in New York, NY, and the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, MN.


Research Interests:

Posters, Political Design, Design for Good, Design for Social Impact, Typography, Branding, Zines, Screen Printing, Relief Printing, Printmaking, Punk Rock

I am Nijal Munankarmi, an Assistant Professor of Design at Oklahoma State University, focusing on typography, UI/UX design, and design justice. My Newari heritage has profoundly shaped my academic journey, which inspired my MFA thesis exhibition. The project used augmented reality (AR) technology to address the pressing issue of preserving the Newari language. It sparked meaningful conversations about cultural preservation and the role of design in education.

My professional experience includes a UI/UX design internship at Bottlerocket Studios in Dallas, where I developed a strong foundation in creating user-centered digital experiences. My current research explores the intersection of emerging technologies and cultural narratives, with a particular interest in leveraging AR to preserve and celebrate indigenous traditions. I am working on a digital archive of Nepal’s god and goddess masks, which combines illustration and AR to document and share these important cultural artifacts.

As an educator, I am passionate about mentoring students and encouraging them to think critically about design's social and cultural dimensions. I believe in using design to address social issues and create meaningful change, and I strive to inspire the next generation of designers to do the same.

Benjamin Murphy is a visual artist working in the expanded field of painting. He is interested in art's ability to communicate complex narratives about our society through contemporary signs and symbols. For him perpetual growth, wealth accumulation, consumption, invention, and our evolving understanding of the physical world are captivating subjects that define our culture. His methods of investigation are not limited to traditional mediums and regularly examine new technologies, integrating them into his artistic practice.

Murphy's most recent projects include a large-scale public art commission for the lobby of the National Weather Center and participation in the Art In Embassies program exhibiting work at the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru. His work has been exhibited at the GenAI Summit, CICA Museum in South Korea, Salle Gilbert-Gaillard Gallery in France, Museum of Art at the University of Southern Mississippi, A.D. Gallery at the University of North Carolina Pembroke, Gallery 130 at the University of Mississippi, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, and MainSite Contemporary Art, among other exhibitions. He is also a member of The Arctic Circle 2025 expeditionary residency in Svalbard, Norway.

As an active supporter of the regional art community in Oklahoma, Murphy serves as the Higher Education Chair & Portfolio Day Chair on the board of the Oklahoma Art Education Association and is the Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Oklahoma State University. He holds an MFA from the University of Oklahoma and a BA from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

Justen Renyer is a designer, artist, and educator specializing in Motion Design. Born and raised in an immigrant family of artists in New York City, and with longtime roots in Oklahoma, Renyer is influenced by many cultures. His education includes graduating from NYC's High School of Art and Design, earning a BFA from Cameron University in Painting, and an MFA from University of Oklahoma in Visual Communication. From lettering, collage, zine design, branding, video and music production to graphic design, animation and motion graphics, his research includes works presented in several national and international art book fairs, as well as client-based work for brands such as:

Converse, DKNY, John Varvatos, the Computer History Museum, various musical artists, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He has directed and produced multiple music videos which have garnered accolades including AIGA's prestigious 365 Award. Other works have been exhibited at the Museum of Science, Boston, the Oklahoma Contemporary Museum, as well as in the AIGA's permanent collection. Justen Renyer is currently an Associate Professor and Graphic Design BFA Coordinator here at Oklahoma State University, with students consistently earning top honors and excellent job placement.

Shelby Roberts is a photographer and educator based in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where she is Visiting Assistant Professor of Photography in the Department of Art, Graphic Design and Art History at Oklahoma State University and a 2025 OSU Center for the Humanities Fellow. She recently relocated from Los Alamos, New Mexico, where her photographic practice was shaped by the region’s history, landscapes, and speculative imaginaries. Roberts holds an MFA in Photography from the University of New Mexico and a BFA from California State University, Long Beach, and was voted 2024 Adjunct Faculty of the Year at Northern New Mexico College. Her photography centers on walking, recording, and informal interviews, examining land use, visual perception, belief systems, and the politics of place. Her work has been exhibited regionally and internationally.

Liz Roth is an oil painter who uses landscape to investigate social, environmental, optical and phenomenological concerns.

Liz Roth’s art has been shown in over 100 competitive exhibitions, including over a dozen solo exhibitions. She is the recipient of numerous prestigious grants and 14 national and international residencies. Her work has been acquired by the Walker Museum of Art, the Museu del Joguet in Spain, and the Museum of Awa Japanese Paper. Her work has been exhibited in such venues as the Rendez-vous International du Carnet de Voyage in Clermont-Ferrand, France, the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center in Pueblo, CO, the Museum of Northern Arizona in  Flagstaff, AZ and the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner, WA.

Roth was a Fulbright Scholar in Guangzhou in 2019. She has been an artist in residence at the Golden Foundation for the Arts (New York), Xiaoxiang International Printmaking Center (Changsha, China) Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts (Wyoming), Ucross (Wyoming), Playa (Oregon), A Project Space (Washington), Grand Canyon National Park- North Rim (Arizona), Wrangell Mountain Center (in Alaska), Jentel  (Wyoming), the Awagami Paper Factory (Japan), the Kamiyama (Japan) Artists in Residence program, and the Vermont Studio Center.

Roth earned her BA at Smith College (in Russian) and her MFA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (in Graphics). She is a full professor of painting and drawing at Oklahoma State University, and currently serves as the Interim Director of the OSU Museum of Art.

Priscilla Schwarz is an art historian who currently teaches seven art history courses per year. From 2006-2022, she additionally taught four Humanities seminars in OSU's Honors College. Prior to OSU, she was Visiting Assistant Professor of Nineteenth-Century Art, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO, August 1994 to May 1995, and held Adjunct positions at Ramapo College, NJ, Rutgers University, NJ, Muhlenberg College, PA, and Fairleigh Dickinson University, NJ, 1986-1994.

Research Interests:

Since 2013, Dr. Schwarz’s research has focused on the work of three American sculptors from the late 19^th to early 20^th century who worked in the naturalist Beaux-Art style of the American Renaissance:  Louis St. Gaudens (brother of Augustus Saint-Gaudens), his politically progressive wife Annetta Johnson, and Annetta’s youngest brother Burt W. Johnson--Dr. Schwarz’s grandfather. Of the two Johnsons, she has produced several exhibitions and presented numerous talks.

Currently, she is writing a comprehensive book and preparing exhibitions on Louis St. Gaudens with Dr. Henry Duffy, curator emeritus of the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Park.

Jessica Teckemeyer creates mixed-media animal sculptures to explore the multiplicity in human nature. Her highly finished artworks feature dramatic, glossy human eyes to clue viewers to the introspective nature of her ideation. The sculptures address socially engaged topics from inequality to mass shootings. She maintains an active studio practice and is the Associate Professor of Sculpture at Oklahoma State University.

Teckemeyer has received numerous accolades, including Best in Show at the "24th Will's Creek National Exhibition," the Twomey Best in Show at the "64 Arts" exhibition, First Place at the "Constructed Visions IV" exhibition, Award of Excellence at the "Social & Politically Engaged Art" exhibition, and the "Manifest Juried Grand Prize" of Season 16 from Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati for "Fox or Foe." Additionally, she has received multiple grants to support her creative activities, the largest being a $20,000 Research Jumpstart Accelerator Grant for 2022. Her sculptures have been featured in twelve solo exhibitions and included in more than eighty group exhibits. Viewers in many cities have experienced her artworks, including Monaco, France; Montevideo, Uruguay; New York, NY; South Orange, NJ; Santa Ana, CA; Baltimore, MD; Chicago, IL; Tallahassee, FL; Cincinnati, OH; Indianapolis, IN; Denton, TX; Minneapolis, MN; Milwaukee, WI; and Des Moines, IA. Her works are in many private collections and the Dubuque Museum of Art. She earned her MFA from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities in May 2010.

Research Interests:

Socially engaged topics: inequality, politics, social behavior, and violence, specifically mass shootings
Sculpture in Public Spaces
3D High-fidelity Scanning & Printing

Ting Wang/Ting Wang-Hedges is a Chinese-born Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, OK. Growing up in Chengdu, China, she had a passion for art and the written word at a young age. She went through rigorous training in Chinese ink painting and calligraphy and published her work in newspapers in China. After receiving her BFA in Graphic Design from Sichuan Normal University, Wang immigrated to the United States in 2009 to pursue her MFA in Graphic Design at Kansas State University. She has taught graphic design courses in higher education at all levels in a career spanning over a decade.

Wang-Hedges's creative research revolves around two main interests. One focus is the study of typography, emphasizing using programming code to creatively re-imagine its shape and content. Another focus is the study of cross-culture design. Her recent generative typography has been published in Graphis-Typography 4 as Silver in the "Type in Use" category, and other typography work were awarded 2022 and 2023 STA(
Society of Typographic Arts) 100. Her posters were exhibited nationally and internationally.