The UA Department of Art and Art History had another strong showing at SECAC, one of the nation’s preeminent art conferences. A delegation of four professors and one grad student presented research and chaired sessions at the 81st annual conference, held at Cincinnati, Ohio’s Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza from October 22-25, 2025.
Dr. Rachel Stephens, professor of art history and current Secretary of SECAC, chaired and participated in the round table Teaching the Art History Survey Today: A Breakout Session with the New Authors of Gardner’s Art Through the Ages. In the wake of the retirement of the former author, Fred Kleiner, Stephens is working as one of three new co-authors of the iconic art history survey text. The new 17th edition is set to release in 2027.
Stephens also presented new research at the conference. “‘I Would Walk Seven Miles to Hear Them Sing Again’: Fisk University’s Jubilee Singers and the Artistic Tradition” appeared in a session titled Art Histories of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Stephens earned the William R. Levin Award for Research in the History of Art at SECAC 2024 in Atlanta.
Associate Professor of Graphic Design Jonathan Cumberland presented “Unboxed: A Look into Teaching Package Design with Analog and Digital Techniques” in the session Teaching Packaging Design: Exploring Struggles and Celebrating Successes. Cumberland also chaired a session titled You Design What You Eat.
Associate Professor of Photography Allison Grant presented a project titled “Visualizing Resistance and Community in Post-Roe Alabama” in a session titled Health/Care (pictured).
In response to the “grim reality” of the post-Roe era, Grant’s new photography series features Southern “women and individuals with uteruses hold botanicals historically used in reproductive care.” By centering plants like Queen Anne’s Lace, Rue, Pennyroyal, and Cohosh, Grant aims to “connect present-day realities to cultural and medical struggles for reproductive freedom across time.“
Professor Sarah Marshall presented “In the Print Shop: Connections, Communities, and Collaboration” in the session Building Connections: Artists, Institutions, and Communities in Collaboration. Marshall and SMGA Director Bill Dooley also had work accepted into the conference’s Annual Juried Exhibition.
Graduate art history student Joel Bowers presented “Frederic Edwin Church’s Subtle Abolitionism: Patrick Henry and the Natural Bridge, Virginia” in an Art of the United States open session.
SECAC (formerly the Southeastern College Art Conference) is a national non-profit organization devoted to education and research in the visual arts. Founded in 1942, SECAC provides advocacy and support for arts professionals and engenders opportunities for the exchange of scholarship and creative activities through an annual conference and publications. Though founded initially as an organization of artists, scholars, and arts professionals from the southeastern states, SECAC has grown to include individual and institutional members from across the United States and around the world, becoming the second largest national organization of its kind.
For more information about The University of Alabama’s programs in art history and studio art, visit our Degree Programs page.