Announcing Chantal Zakari as SMFA Associate Dean of Curriculum and Instruction
Dear Colleagues,
We are delighted to announce that Chantal Zakari, Professor of the Practice in Graphic Arts, has been appointed as the inaugural Associate Dean of Curriculum and Instruction for the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, effective July 1, 2025.
With her deep familiarity with SMFA’s curriculum, including its strengths and challenges, and her commitment to providing educational excellence for SMFA students, we are so pleased that Chantal will be stepping into this position. As SMFA’s first Associate Dean of Curriculum and Instruction, Chantal will focus on the management and implementation of SMFA’s curriculum in close collaboration with the SMFA Curriculum Committee and Leah Gadd, SMFA’s Associate Dean of Advising and Undergraduate Studies. She will also supervise Laurel Wero, SMFA’s Assistant Director of Academic and Curriculum Administration.
Chantal came to SMFA in 1997 as a Professor of the Practice teaching in Graphic Arts. She has a keen understanding of the school before it merged with Tufts and after, and has served as Chair of the Department of Graphic Arts, Photo, and Print for a number of years. She has also taught in the Tufts University Prison Initiative of Tisch College program. Chantal has served on a number of faculty committees including the SMFA Curriculum Committee, the SMFA Promotion and Advancement Committee, and the AS&E Executive Committee. She has also served on the Tufts University Faculty Senate.
Chantal draws upon contemporary social issues by making connections through personal narratives, history, and popular culture. Her studio practice freely combines research methodologies and artistic strategies borrowed from photography, documentary, performance, storytelling, installation, graphic design, and social interventions. Often her projects culminate in artist’s publications. Committed to the creation of artworks that are accessible to a wide audience, her studio practice has embraced the rapid changes in reproduction and distribution of book and printed ephemera. Under the imprint of Eighteen Publications, together with her partner Mike Mandel, she has published the following collaborative artist’s books: The Turk and The Jew (1998), The State of Ata (2010), They Came to Baghdad (2012), Lockdown Archive (2015), Campaign (2018), and Accidental Evidence (2025). On her own, Chantal has published: webAffairs (2005), Drop Dead Gorgeous (2020), Arsenal News (2021), and Pictures from the Outside (2023).
Chantal's work is in the collections of Yale University and the Addison Gallery of American Art, and her artist’s books are in many private, public, and rare book collections. Her work has been recognized and reviewed in Artforum, ArtPapers, Afterimage, Wired Magazine, Le Monde, Boston Globe, Lenscratch and many other art journals and blogs. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Chantal’s appointment coincides with the departure of Dean Nate Harrison, who will be stepping down from his leadership role at SMFA this month. We thank Nate for his dedication and expert leadership in SMFA academic affairs for the past 7 years. And we also thank the A&S Advisory Committee, who provided helpful input on the nominations we received for this important position, as well as the interview participants for their time and thoughtful feedback on the candidates.
We are delighted to welcome Chantal to the leadership team! Please join us in congratulating her on this new step!
Sincerely,
Bárbara M. Brizuela
Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences
Scheri Fultineer
Dean of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Tufts University