S. Suzanne Duvall

Professor, Art

S. Suzanne Duvall

Bio

Dr. Suzanne Duvall-Zurinsky is a Professor of Art at the University of North Alabama who teaches courses in art appreciation and serves as the Faculty Media Specialist for a course taught in methodologies and materials for art education majors. Dr. Duvall holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Secondary Art Education from the University of Mississippi and a B.F.A. from Mississippi University for Women. While a graduate student at the University of Mississippi, Dr. Duvall worked at the U.M. Research and Training Center for the Handicapped and served as a liaison with the Mississippi School for the Blind. It was during these years that she developed a strong interest in art education for special needs students.

Upon completion of her Ph.D., Dr. Duvall taught at St. Catharine College in Kentucky before moving to Florence, Alabama, to teach at the University of North Alabama. In 2000, Dr. Duvall’s only child was diagnosed with regressive autism at the age of 18 months. This was the beginning of a journey of hope, as she sought to find her son in an unfamiliar neurological landscape, reach him, and bring him home again. She educated herself extensively about autism and successful therapies and began a program of intervention that combined speech, occupational, and behavioral (ABA) therapies with a massive infusion of therapeutic creative activities in art, music and drama. The road to recovery was long, but the results were nothing short of phenomenal.

Inspired by her son’s success with this program, Dr. Duvall began sharing the knowledge she had gained with other art educators in the hope that they could use it to reach and teach their own special needs students in the classroom and help them find their way home, as well. In 2010, she was given the opportunity to tell her son’s story in the N.A.E.A. book Understanding Students with Autism through Art, edited by Drs. Beverly Levitt-Gerber and Julia Kellman. Dr. Duvall’s life has been a surprising journey that was impossible to plan for, but it led her to a wonderful place of hope. Her desire is to leave behind a legacy that inspires and empowers art educators to reach out to children struggling with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and help guide them back into a world of light and hope and love.

Research Interests

  • Curriculum and Instruction (Secondary Art Education)

Courses Taught

Education

  •   Education (Secondary -- Art Education) (PhD)
    The University of Mississippi
  •   Art Education (MA)
    The University of Mississippi
  •   Art Education (BFA)
    Mississippi University for Women
  •   Art Education (A.A.)
    Northeast Mississippi Community College

Selected Intellectual Contributions

  • Shannon S. Duvall and Joy M. Brown. 2010. Art, Music and Drama: Bridging Two Worlds. Understanding Students with Autism Through Art.
  • Joy Muse Brown and Shannon Suzanne Duvall. 2010. Art, Music, and Drama: Bridging Two Worlds. Understanding Students with Autism through Art.
  • Joy Muse Brown and Shannon Suzanne Duvall. 2009. Exercise, Health, and the Perceived Levels of Student Stress at the University Level. 7th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Education
  • Joy Muse Brown and Shannon Suzanne Duvall. 2009. Factors Contributing to Perceived Levels of Student Stress at the University Level. American Institute of Higher Education - 3rd International Conference
  • Joy Muse Brown and Shannon Suzanne Duvall. 2009. The Importance of Art to the Autistic Child. 7th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Education