Keondra Prier

Keondra Prier (she/her) is pursuing her Ph.D in Sociocultural and Community-based Approaches to research in Education at the University of Delaware. Her current research interests include the philosophical beliefs of  educators, artists, and activists who apply critical and dialogical practices of teaching and learning for the explicit goal of raising critical consciousness, the philosophy and practice of critical dialogical pedagogy in museum settings, and the practical implications of the schism between Black Futurism and Afropessimism to teaching and researching blackness. 

Prier has previously worked as the Mellon Initiative Project Manager at the Baltimore Museum of Art. In this role, she managed a community-based research project which brought together museum and other cultural workers, artists, educators, and activists to understand what systems and structures are required for a liberatory art museum. She has also served as the School Programs Manager at the Walters Art Museum and was the Senior Museum Educator at the Brooklyn Museum of Art where she focused on teacher professional development. She received her B.A. in Africana Studies and Economics from Barnard College, Columbia University, New York. 

Education

• B.A., Africana Studies and Economics, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY, 2008

Professional Experience

• Mellon Initiative Project Manager, Education and Interpretation Department, Baltimore Museum of Art, 2021- 2024
• School Programs Manager, Education Department, Walters Art Museum, 2018 – 2021
• Senior Museum Educator, Education Department, Brooklyn Museum of Art, 2016 – 2017
• Research Assistant, Consortium for Critical Interdisciplinary Studies, Barnard College, 2010-2012

Recent Honors and Awards

• Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, Barnard College, 2004-2008
• Schomburg-Mellon Humanities Summer Institute, 2007

Presentations

• Prier, Keondra (2019, June). Teaching students to critically engage with art facilitates their ability to critically engage with the world. Oral presentation at the Arts in Maryland Pre-Conference (AIM) in Baltimore County, MD.