Art History Professor Authors Book Chapter Andrea Lepage examines how academic galleries can serve as transformative learning spaces.

By Brian Laubscher
September 3, 2025

Andrea Lepage, Pamela H. Simpson Professor of Art History at Washington and Lee University, recently contributed a chapter to the book “Pedagogical Art in Activist and Curatorial Practices,” which was published in June by Routledge Press.

The first-edition volume, edited by Izabel Galliera from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Noni Brynjolson from Minnesota State University Moorhead, includes chapters authored by leading and emerging scholars, curators and artists who have written case studies from various geographical, cultural and political contexts. The book’s chapters highlight the historical, philosophical and theoretical legacies of pedagogical art and examine its connections with various forms of activism and institutional transformation.

Lepage’s chapter, “The Classroom as Borderland: Borderlands Art Pedagogy,” appears in the second section — “Pedagogies as Tools in Institutional Transformations and Counter Institutions.” In her chapter, Lepage examines how academic galleries can serve as transformative learning spaces by analyzing three Latino and Chicano exhibitions held at W&L’s Staniar Gallery. Through immersive programming, collaborative curation, bilingual publications and student engagement with artists and scholars, the exhibitions evoked critical reflection and empathy among students while amplifying Latinx voices and histories, she says.

Lepage has been a member of the W&L faculty since 2008. She serves as department head for Art and Art History and is a core faculty member for the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program. Lepage holds a Bachelor of Arts in art history from Clark University as well as a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in the history of art and architecture from Brown University.

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