Catherine Jolivette, associate professor of art and design at Missouri State University, is the recipient of the College of Arts and Architecture 2012 Alumni Award in Art History. The annual award recognizes alumni for outstanding professional and creative achievements.Jolivette will be honored at a ceremony on Friday, March 30, 2012, at 3:30 p.m. in Esber Recital Hall, Music Building I, on the University Park campus.

Jolivette received her Ph.D. in art history from Penn State in 2003. A native of Great Britain, she focuses her research and teaching at Missouri State University on British art after 1945. Jolivette’s current research project, Art and the Atom: British Art in the Nuclear Age, is supported by a research grant from the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art. Her latest book, Landscape, Art, and Identity in 1950s Britain, was published in 2009. A recipient of several teaching awards, Jolivette has been praised for her enthusiasm and commitment. “If you can take a class with Professor Jolivette, she will make you want to be a better person and most likely will make you fall in love with art,” said one student in an award nomination. Jolivette said she gained confidence at Penn State, as well as mentors who exemplified what it meant to be a scholar at the highest international level. “What I learned most as a graduate student at Penn State came from my peers and professors, as they treated everyone with professionalism and compassion,” she said. “I learned a lot by just watching and it showed me the kind of teacher and scholar that I wanted to be.”

Heartiest Congratulations to her on behalf of Art And Design Department and Missouri State University.