Bill Gaskins is Founding Director of the Photography + Media & Society MFA and uniquely suited to lead and guide the next generation of thought-leaders working through visual, material, and media culture. His depth of experience represents a rich tapestry of practice, teaching, and research in photography and media.

Prior to his appointment at MICA, Gaskins has been on the faculty of Department of Art at Cornell University, the School of Art, Media & Technology, Art & Design History & Theory at Parsons School of Design, and the School for Public Engagement at The New School University, the Department of Photography School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Department of Art & Art History at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. He is acknowledged by students and peers for his engaged, informed and inspired teaching as winner of the Watts Prize for Faculty Excellence at the Cornell University Department of Art, and the University Distinguished Teaching Award at the New School University. He earned his BFA from Tyler School of Art, MA from The Ohio State University, and his MFA from the Graduate Photography Program at MICA.

His depth of experience represents a rich tapestry of practice, as an artist working in photography, cinema, and non-fiction writing. Gaskins’ work is based on a professional and academic foundation informed by the history of photography, art, media culture, and American and African American Studies scholarship. A critical entry point for his work is his fascination with the myths and realities of photography and the American Dream

He is the author of the groundbreaking monograph, Good & Bad Hair: Photographs by Bill Gaskins and has published essays and reviews in numerous journals including, The Society of Contemporary Craft, Artsy, and Exposure: The Journal of The Society of Photographic Education, BOMB among others. His relevance as a contemporary artist garners attention through books, exhibition catalogs, solo and group exhibitions at major venues including the Crocker Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, and The Smithsonian Institution