Ilayda Altuntas, Ph.D.

Dr. Ilayda Altuntas earned her Ph.D. in Art Education from Pennsylvania State University. Her dissertation Pedagogy of Sounding: Tuning in Art Education, developed and implemented a course titled Sound Art & Installation at Pratt Institute's Center for Art, Design, and Community Engagement K-12

Dr. Altuntas is a scholar, artist, and educator whose work advances a specialized niche in art education through the study of sound pedagogy, sonic art practices, and listening as methodological inquiry. Her research examines how sound shapes awareness, memory, identity, and spatial experience in learning environments. She is the founder of Sounding Art Practice as Research (SAPAR), a practice-led methodology that positions sound as both a tool of analysis and a creative medium for exploring place, cultural memory, and embodied knowledge. Through SAPAR, Dr. Altuntas contributes a distinctive theoretical and methodological framework to the field, expanding how art education understands sensory experience, environmental perception, and the ethical possibilities of listening.

She teaches undergraduate teacher-preparation courses and graduate courses in arts-based and sensory ethnographic research methods. She is the Program Coordinator of the Wildcat Saturday Art School in the Art & Visual Culture Education (AVCE) program at the University of Arizona, where she mentors pre-service teachers and oversees program planning and curriculum development. She currently serves as the Chair for the Seminar for Research in Art Education (SRAE) at the National Art Education Association 2025-2027.

Her current art and teaching practice centers on Decolonizing Practices in Art Education, including the project Resonating Histories: A Decolonial Sound Walk in Saguaro National Park West. This place-based, multisensory project invites participants to engage in sound walks that explore land histories, cultural memory, stewardship, and decolonial reflection through listening, movement, and environmental recording. The work bridges art education, environmental humanities, and social justice by fostering meaningful connections between learners, landscapes, and the historical narratives embedded in place.

Dr. Altuntas’ research has been published in NAEA News; the International Review of Qualitative Research (IRQR), and the International Journal of Arts-Based Educational Research (iJABER) , reflecting her ongoing contributions to sound-based inquiry in the art education field.

Before her time in higher education, she worked as a K-12 Visual Art Teacher in NYC's Public School System; and taught Art History and Visual Art classes (in the South Bronx, Harlem, and Manhattan districts). She also worked at Pratt Institute's Saturday Art School K-12 for five years; supervised the Saturday Art School at IU Bloomington and Saturday Art Program at Penn State. She has experience with edTPA NY licensure processes; her students' work was displayed in the P.S. Art 2016 exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan Borough's Art Festival 2016, and MoMA in April 2017.

She received her M.S. in Art and Design Education from Pratt Institute (Brooklyn, NY) and wrote her master's thesis on the experiences of art facilitators in NYC's detention centers, with a focus on the work of The Drama Club NYC, a non-profit organization that brings improvisational theater and performative experiences to NYC's incarcerated youth. She also served on the New York State Juvenile Justice Coalition board for a year. In addition, she holds a double-major B.F.A. with high honors in Plastic Arts (Painting, Sculpture & Ceramic) and Fashion & Textile Design from Yeditepe University, Istanbul.

Publications/Creative Scholarship

Altuntas Nott, I. (under review). Listening as relational commons in saturday art school. International Journal of Arts-Based Educational Research.

Altuntas Nott, I. (under review) Sounds of borderlands: Voicing diverse discourses in art education through the sound lab project. Instructional Resources Art Education Journal.

Altuntas Nott, I. (under review). The Orange Table Effect: Theory-building at the intersection of space, conversation, and affect in art education. Studies in Art Education.

Altuntas Nott, I. (2025). Sounds of borderlands: Podcasting as decolonial pedagogy in art education. Seminar for Research in Art Education (SRAE) Column: Fall 2025, National Art Education Association (NAEA) News.

Altuntas Nott, I. (2025). Listening again: Sound, place, and research at the edge of art education. Seminar for Research in Art Education (SRAE) Column: Summer 2025, National Art Education Association (NAEA) News.

Altuntas Nott, I. & Shin, R. (2025). Decolonizing art education through sound: Navigating dual identities and pedagogical strategies. In A. Richards & S. Willis (Eds.), Decolonizing the legacy of white supremacy in art education. University of Kentucky Press. (in print).

Altuntas Nott, I. (2024) Sonic pedagogies at border crossings. International Journal of Arts-Based Educational Research, 2(2), 36–44. https://doi.org/10.17979/ijaber.2024.2.2.11246

Altuntas Nott, I. (2024) The auditory weave of saturday art school in three movements. Research Catalogue. https://doi.org/10.22501/rc.2162317

Altuntas Nott, I. (2022). Sounding art practice as research: Soundwalking the border. Seminar for Research in Art Education (SRAE) Column: Fall 2022, National Art Education Association (NAEA) News.

Powell, K., Altuntas Nott, I., & Bricker, M. (2022). Defamiliarizing a walk. International Review of Qualitative Research, 0(0), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/19408447221090659

Altuntas Nott, I. (2021). Pedagogy of sounding: Tuning in art education. [Doctoral Dissertation, Pennsylvania State University]. The Pennyslvania State University Libraries. https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/22000ixa25

Altuntas Nott, I. (2015). Improv, risk and conflict: The experiences of arts facilitators in New York City’s juvenile justice system. [masters thesis]. Pratt Institute Libraries.