Liz Maynard earned a PhD in Art History from McGill University, Montreal, and an MA in Humanities from the University of Chicago. In addition to teaching at RISD, she has been teaching Art History and Humanities courses at Rhode Island College since 2007. She has published several articles on the social, political and medical constructions of gender and sexuality. Her art historical research on the representation of trauma and the body led her to pursue training in somatic education, and she also works as a yoga teacher, meditation leader and craniosacral therapist. Her current interests include discerning the rich possibilities in being attentive to how intellectual and creative pursuits intersect with somatic awareness.