The Diving Bell as Pedagogical Method: Reflections on Karen Overbey as a Teacher

Karen Overbey’s contributions to the discipline of art history are distinguished by her scholarship as much as her teaching. In this essay, two of Overbey’s former master’s students at Tufts University reflect on lessons they learned in her classroom. Through her innovative pedagogy and radical scholarship, she modeled an art historical practice that is embodied, collaborative, and inclusive. By entrusting her graduate students with authority they found in few other places in the early stages of their careers, Overbey shaped the professional and intellectual lives of a new generation of thinkers committed to understanding the art and visual culture of the past and its significance for the twenty-first century.