Dr. Patricia Vettel-Becker, Associate Professor of Art Dr. Vettel-Becker teaches the art history courses in the Art Department at Montana State University-Billings.  She joined the department in the fall of 1998 after completing her Ph.D. in Art History and Archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.  Her expertise is in American Art, Modern and Contemporary Art, Film and Photography, Critical Theory, and Gender Studies.

Teaching Philosophy

“My primary tenet is that teaching is a two-way process, one in which students and teacher learn from one another.  It is also important to learn together, to work through material that may be difficult even for me, so that students understand that the learning process never ends.  Although I believe it is important that students respect teachers, I do not believe that students should fear or feel intimidated by them.  Therefore, I work to create an open and accepting atmosphere, one in which all opinions are respected and valued.  My students at MSU-Billings, Washington University, and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, have come from a wide variety of backgrounds in terms of economics, politics, race, gender, ethnicity, geography, and religion.  Moreover, their ages have ranged from eighteen to eighty-something.  One of my greatest challenges as a teacher has been taking all these factors into consideration in creating a climate of tolerance and open exchange.  Creating such a climate is among a teacher’s most important responsibilities, for to model and encourage tolerance in the classroom is to promote tolerance outside the classroom.  Teaching is not only a career choice, but a commitment to society as a whole.”

About Vettel-Becker

Dr. Vettel-Becker has published articles on Felix the Cat films in American Art, Bruce Davidson's 1959 gang photographs in Art Journal, and the iconography of the Reformation in The Encyclopedia of the Reformation.  She also wrote the catalog for Tracy Linder: Dust to Dust, an exhibition at the Yellowstone Art Museum.  In July 2002, her article "Destruction and Delight: World War II Combat Photography and the Aesthetic Inscription of Masculine Identity" appeared in Men in Masculinities.  Her article "Clarence Holbrook Carter's War Bride and the Machine/Woman Fantasy" will appear in the Fall 2002 issue of Genders.  Her book, Shooting from the Hip: Photography, Masculinity, and Postwar America, was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2005.

Dr. Vettel-Becker has delivered conference papers on these topics, as well as on visual imagery of Sacagawea, contemporary women artists and agriculture, and Michelangelo.  In 1997, she was the Ansel Adams Fellow at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Contact Me: pvbecker@msubillings.edu