Christina Bain received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in History of Art from Syracuse University in 1986. Also from Syracuse University, she earned a Master of Science degree in Art Education in 1989. She holds a New York State permanent teaching certification in art and has public school teaching experience at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels. In 2001, she received a PhD in Art Education from the University of Georgia.
Dr. Bain is an Associate Professor of Art Education at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests focus on the intersection of theory with practice in art education. More specifically, her research examines the preparation and development of art teachers, both at the preservice and inservice levels, with topics including the development of teacher identity, curricular development, technology integration, arts integration, and material culture. She has numerous publications which have appeared in Studies in Art Education, The Journal of Art Education, Visual Arts Research, School Arts, Texas Trends, the NAEA Advisory, and the GAEA Journal. She is the author of Pixels are Not Paint: A Qualitative Study of the Effectiveness of the Digitalfolio as a Learning Strategy in a College Digital Art Classroom and has contributed chapters to Matter Matters: Art Education and Material Culture Studies and Remembering Others: Making Invisible Histories of Art Education Visible. In the past decade she has conducted more than 50 presentations at the National Art Education Association, Texas Art Education Association, Georgia Art Education Association, Curriculum and Pedagogy Conference, Hawaii International Conference on Education, and the Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities. Dr. Christina Bain received a 2015 Regents Outstanding Teacher Award, recognizing outstanding teaching performance. She received the Texas Art Educator of the Year Award in 2011, the Texas Art Education Association’s Higher Educator of the Year Award in 2005 and the National Art Education Association Student Chapter Sponsor Award in 2009. Bain was the Texas Art Education Association’s secretary from 2009-2011 and the TAEA Higher Education Division Representative from 2005-2009. She was an editor of the Texas Trends Journal (2007-2011) and served on the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Art Education (2005-2008). She currently serves as a consultant for the Educational Testing Service, and as a reviewer for Teachers College Press.