Savneet K Talwar

Professor, Art Therapy (2008). PhD, American Studies, 2010, University of Maryland; BA, 1986, Punjab University; MA, 1992, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville; Certificate in Child and Family Therapy, 1995, St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute. Credentials: Registered and Board Certified Art Therapist. Publications: Arts in Psychotherapy; Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association; Gender Issues in Art Therapy; and the author of Art Therapy for Social Justice: Radical Intersections, published by Routledge.

Exhibition Curator: Women Made Gallery, March 2025

Talwar, S. (2026). Foreword. In M. Bethune, K. Linhardt &V. Koutmina’s (Ed.) The Embodied Art Therapist. Routledge Press. 

Guest Editor: Talwar, S. & Sajnani, N. (2022). Intersectionality and ethics of care in the creative arts therapies. Arts in Psychotherapy.

Talwar, S.(2022). Foreword. In J. Collier and C. Eastwood’s (Ed.) Intersectionality in the art psychotherapies. Jessica Kingsley.

Talwar, S. & Wallis, R. (2020). Quilting across prison walls: Craftwork, social practice, and radical empathy. In L. Leone’s (Ed.) Craft as power: Craft in art therapy. Routledge.

Talwar, S. (2019). Feminism as Practice: Craft, Labor, and Art Therapy. In S. Hogan’s (Eds) Inscribed on the Body: Gender and Difference in the Arts Therapies. New York, NY: Routledge.

Talwar, S. (2019). Art therapy for social justice: Radical intersections. New York, NY: Routledge.

Yi, S. & Talwar, S. (2018). Disability, art, and art therapy. In C. Sandahl, T. Heller, S.P. Harris, C. Gill, & R. Gould’s (Eds.) Disability in American life: An encyclopedia of concepts, policies, and controversies. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. 

Talwar, S. (2017). Foreword. In M. Bethune, K. Linhardt &V. Koutmina’s (Ed.) The Embodied Art Therapist. Routledge.

Guest Editor: Talwar, S. (2017). Law, ethics, and cultural competence in art therapy. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 34 (3), 102-105. 

Guest Editor: Talwar, S. (2016). Is there a need to redefine art therapy? Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 33(3), 116-118. 

Guest Editor: Talwar, S. (2015). Culture, diversity and identity: From margins to center. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 32(3), 100-103. 

Talwar, S. (2015). Creating Alternative Public Spaces: Community-Based Art Practice, Critical Consciousness and Social Justice. In David Gussak and Marcia Rosal’s The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Art Therapy. Oxford, UK: Wiley Blackwell.

Talwar, S. (2013). Revisiting Feminist Approaches to Art Therapy, by Susan Hogan (Ed.), book review. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 30 (3).

Talwar, S. (2010). Performance art and the politics of an archive: Mary Coble’s “Note to Self,” John Douglas Taylor Conference 2010: The Archive in Everyday Life Proceedings http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~english/JDT/archiveandeverydaylife/panelc1.html 

Talwar, S. (2010). An intersectional framework for race, class, gender, and sexuality in art therapy. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 27,(1) 11-17.

Talwar, S. (Winter, 2010). Electing our first president- elect of color: Mercedes ter Maat. American Art Therapy Association Newsletter, XLIII, (1) 25. 

Talwar, S. (2007). Accessing traumatic memory through art making: An art therapy trauma protocol (ATTP). Arts in Psychotherapy , 34 (1) 22-35.

Talwar, S. (2006). Neuropsychology of art: Neurological, cognitive and evolutionary perspectives, by Dahlia Ziadel. (2005), book review. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 23 (2) 4.

Talwar, S. (2006). Commentaries, Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 23 (1) 4.

Talwar, S. (2005). Studio 360, National Public Radio – Born in brothels, interviewed for the Oscar winning documentary film about children born in the Calcutta brothels. 

Talwar, S. (2004). A framework for immigration: Asians in the United States, by Uma Segal (2002), book review. American Studies International: The Journal of Internationalist Americanist. 

Talwar, S., Iyer, J. & Doby-Copeland, C. (2004). The invisible veil: Changing paradigms in the art therapy profession. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 21(1) 44-48.

Iyer, J., Talwar, S. & Doby-Copeland, C. (2003). Deconstructing Kaplan’s views on multiculturalism. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 20(2) 65-66.

Talwar, S. (2002). Decolonisation: Third world women and conflicts in feminist perspectives and art therapy. In Susan Hogan's Gender Issues in Art Therapy (pp. 185-193). London, England: Gender Issues in Art Therapy.

Presence and Absence: The Space Between, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL, 2026; Open To the Public: The Five Freedoms, WomensWork, Poughkeepsie, NY, 2026; Re-Thread, Webster University, St. Louis, MO, 2026; Small Ensembles, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI, 2025; Interwoven Narrative, New England Art Center at TAG Gallery, Boston, MA, 2025; Partition is Imaginary, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Seattle, WA, 2025; Air BIEN 2025, Kranj Slovenia, 2025; Healers and Dreamers, Luzbeik Center for the Arts, MI, 2024; Connectivity, Women Made Gallery, 2024; FOUND: Love Letters of Muslim Resistance and Community, P O Box Collective 2019

Savneet Talwar is a Chicago-based American Studies scholar, fiber artist, educator, and art therapist. She is a faculty member at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she teaches in the Art Therapy and Fiber and Material Studies departments. She is also the former chair of the art therapy department (2013–2015; 2019–2022).

Talwar’s interdisciplinary practice and scholarship exist at the intersection of archives, memory, language, feminist politics, and questions of resistance. She is interested in the contradictions of feminist and archival matters – what and who is worthy of being a subject of discourse? What colonial narratives and images continue to define matters of the global south?

Talwar’s fiber craft practice explores needle methodologies to engage in stitching and mending as an act of slow activism and wellbeing. She has facilitated several community-based textiles projects to foster and strengthen community, create social bonds, and raise awareness about social and political issues. Talwar is frequently invited as a keynote speaker and workshop leader to facilitate conversations on mending, repair, and radical care.

Talwar has presented her scholarly work in the US and international venues, including Pratt Institute, Brooklyn; New York University, New York; School of the Visual Arts, New York; St. Xavier's, Mumbai, India; Ghent, ECARTE, Belgium; BIEN 2025, Kranj, Slovenia; Concordia University, Montreal, Canada; ECARTE, Madrid, Spain, and more. Her weavings and quilts have been exhibited at Woman Made Gallery, Chicago; New England Art Center, Boston; Luzbeik Center for the Arts, Michigan City; and BIEN 2025, Kranj, Slovenia. She is the author of Art Therapy for Social Justice: Radical Intersections and has published numerous articles in national and international journals on ethics of care, intersectional feminism, feminist pedagogy, the politics of crafting, culture and identity, ethics, law and cultural competence, trauma-informed art therapy, and more. Talwar served as the Associate Editor of Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association from 2015-2018.