Dr. Megan Hildebrandt

Biography

Megan Hildebrandt is an Associate Professor and Practice Director in the First-Year Core Program at the University of Texas at Austin. A cancer survivor, Hildebrandt's personal experiences profoundly influence her creative practice. Having confronted her own mortality at the age of 25, she has developed a deep obsession with tracking time and documenting small, routine moments of life. Her works capture intimate and personal experiences, reflecting the fragility and strength associated with existence. Hildebrandt's artistic exploration delves into themes of autobiography, the passage of time, illness narratives, and recovery from trauma through figurative and abstract drawings and paintings. She aims to recover lost time experienced during cancer treatment while also tracking her development as a new self alongside her young children. Hildebrandt has exhibited her work nationally and internationally in notable venues and received an Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2018 for her course on Aesthetics in Health at Interlochen Arts Academy. In 2022, she co-authored an article on adapting aesthetics in health curricula for higher education during the pandemic, published in the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics. Hildebrandt continues to teach at the University of Texas at Austin, contributing to the intersection of art and health advocacy.

Research Interests