Temple University

Megan Voeller (they/them) is an educator, curator and writer whose work focuses on critical intersections of contemporary art and health. Their research explores how contemporary artists engage with concepts and practices of health, healing, and medicine, and on the reciprocal role of the arts and humanities in medical training.
 
Voeller has been Director of Humanities at Thomas Jefferson University’s health sciences campus in Center City, Philadelphia, since 2016. At Sidney Kimmel Medical College, they direct the JeffMD Humanities Selectives, a system of twenty-plus arts and humanities courses for preclinical medical students. Each year, a small cohort of students also participate in an independent research track in the medical humanities, which Voeller co-directs with physician Salvatore Mangione. Voeller manages a staff team that develops campus, public and patient-centered initiatives including the annual Asano Humanities & Health program, comprising more than fifty events each year, the Helix Gallery exhibition space, and an Artist-in-Residence program with Jefferson Health clinical partners.
 
During 2024, Voeller is Project Director for Convalescence, an immersive installation by artist Pepón Osorio that traces the experiences of five Philadelphians navigating the U.S. healthcare system. They are also Curator of Public Engagement for We Here, a Mural Arts Philadelphia project in Kensington highlighting youth, creativity, and pottery, led by artist Roberto Lugo and a community advisory council of Kensington residents.
 
Voeller began their career as a curator of exhibitions and education programs at the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, and as an arts journalist and critic. Since 2006, they have written more than 250 exhibition reviews and feature stories for publications including The Philadelphia Inquirer, Hyperallergic, Creative Loafing, Miami Rail, Art Papers, and Burnaway. They are a former co-host and freelance producer for WEDU Arts Plus, a public television program produced by PBS affiliate WEDU. 
 
Currently a PhD candidate in art history at Tyler School of Art & Architecture at Temple University, Voeller holds an MA in Media Studies from the New School, an MA in Art History from the University of South Florida, and a BA in Studio Art with Honors from Williams College.

MA, Art History, University of South Florida, 2012 
MA, Media Studies, The New School, 2005 
BA, Studio Art with Honors, Williams College, 2001 

Dissertation Title: Healing Institutions: Redressing Museums and Biomedicine in Contemporary Art

Advisor: Alpesh Patel, PhD