Patty holds an Ed.D. from University of Massachusetts Amherst (2005) with a concentration in Language, Literacy and Culture. Her research interests include: the arts in urban education, the role of visual culture in art teacher preparation, and the intersection of postmodernism and multiculturalism in art education. She has published and lectured on critical art pedagogy based in public schools, retheorizing identity and curriculum, and redefining multicultural education. Years of experience as an activist public school art teacher and teacher educator inform Patty Bode's art making, research and teaching. Patty is the recipient of National Multicultural Educator Award of 2005 from National Association for Multicultural Education for efforts in anti-racist curriculum reform in art education and bridging theory and practice in multicultural education. She delivered the keynote address at the 2006 conference of the Massachusetts Art Education Association. Patty also co-delivered, with Sonia Nieto, a keynote address at the 2007 conference of the National Association for Multicultural Education. She is co-author with Sonia Nieto of Affirming Diversity: the Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education,5th edition (2008).