 |
|
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
For us artists, teachers and scholars, summer is often a time for research and reflection after the intense rush of the academic year.
This is a propitious moment to think about what David W. Orr, in the The Nature of Design (2002), defined as "slow knowledge." Orr built his argument on chiseled oppositions: Fast knowledge gathers "growing mountains" of unconnected data; slow knowledge favors the creation of "patterns that connect." ...
Orr's thoughtful aphorisms continue to be relevant today.
READ FULL MESSAGE
There is no better place than a public university like UC San Diego to shape this crucial debate through the initiatives that our Division is spearheading, often in dialogue with other campus partners. Wishing you a restful and productive summer, I am pleased to offer you a snapshot of these initiatives.
|
|
|
|
Dean Cristina
Della Coletta
|
|
|
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER RANKS THEATRE & DANCE MFA ACTING PROGRAM #5
The
Hollywood Reporter recently ranked the top 25 acting schools in the U.S. and England. UC San Diego's Department of Theatre and Dance ranked #5 on its list. The publication consulted deans, teachers, students, actors and other insiders to compile its rankings. Here's how it described UC San Diego's theatre and dance program: "
Its association with the La Jolla Playhous
e---
a pro theater on campus where countless Tony-winning productions have been conceived, including Thoroughly Modern Millie and Jersey Boys - makes this program in San Diego one of the b
est."
Earlier this year, MFA programs in Creative Writing and Visual Arts were also highly ranked by
College Choice
.
ZIPPIA RANKS UC SAN DIEGO HISTORY #9 IN CALIFORNIA
A newer resource aimed at helping recent college graduates start their careers,
Zippia
recently evaluated California universities' history departments. Looking at metrics around career results, emphasis on history, and school performance, the resource placed UC San Diego History in the top 10 in the state.
|
INAUGURAL SUMMER ACADEMY SUCCESS
The division is thrilled to share the successful completion of the first PATH Summer Academy. The Summer Academy is a key feature of the PATH program, a collaborative partnership between the
UC San Diego
Division of Arts and Humanities and the San Diego Community College District. Funded by a generous grant from The Mellon Foundation, the project works to help guide transfer students into the arts and humanities at UC San Diego.
The inaugural five-week program, held July 3 - August 4, featured a cohort of 22 students who participated in two courses, "Dimensions of Culture" taught by Jeff Gagnon
(program director, Warren Writing Program),
and "The American City in the Twentieth Century" taught by Nancy Kwak
(associate professor, Department of History),
earning eight credit
s
toward their degree. Alongside the coursework, students received peer mentor support, specialized academic
and career-readiness
workshops,
and
off-campus field trips
.
The division and program organizers look forward to building on the positive momentum of this milestone and continuing to work with the incoming students
to help prepare them for life as a Triton and beyond.
READ ABOUT THE PROGRAM
|
A & H 'FLIPS' FUNDING TO ESTABLISH NEW HUMANITIES COURSES
Dennis Childs
,
Luis Alvarez
and
Christena Turner
received funding through the university's Course Development and Instructional Improvement Program (CCDIP). The funding benefits the three professors' work associated with major and minor programs within the Institute of Arts and Humanities. For example, Childs' funding supports course enhancement and development for the university's first major in African American and African Diaspora Studies. The funding Alvarez received supports a
San Diego race and oral history project. Looking beyond the classroom, Alvarez's new course offers students "a multi-faceted curricular experience ... to engage the history and contemporary life of understudied racial and ethnic communities in San Diego." And T
urner's funding c
ontinues support for creating a hybrid classroom for f
irst-year Japanese language curriculum. The envisioned "flipped" classroom will offer more natural, interactive and student-centered learning experiences, such as i
nnovative instructional technologies like videos that students watch online before coming to class and free class-time for active communication activities.
The professors will join f
aculty director Gabriele Wienhausen and her team from The Teach
ing + Learning Commons for a meeting during fall quarter to discuss project assessments.
|
DIVISION, IAH 'KNIT' TOGETHER COLLABORATION, COMMUNITY
Through an initiative called "KNIT," the Division of Arts and Humanities is crafting collaboration and community on campus---digitally. By offering online tools collectively referred to as a "digital commons,"
KNIT
will enable university faculty, students and staff to customize websites for courses, research projects or personal academic portfolios; create or join public and private discussion groups devoted to shared interests; and network with communities both on and off campus. In addition to the KNIT online resource, the division has launched a Digital Arts & Humanities website, featuring initiatives of the Institute of Arts & Humanities (IAH) and related projects and resources on campus.
READ MORE
|
|
|
DIVISION EXPANDS TIES WITH KYOTO UNIVERSITY
Cementing an ongoing partnership with UC San Diego, Kyoto University has opened a San Diego Liaison Office, and hosted an opening reception and networking event in order to further existing collaborations and initiate new ones. Dr. Makoto Azuma, the founding director of the Kyoto University office, said the new facility in San Diego will allow the two universities to collaborate in a broad range of research areas. "Our university strives for diverse development in pure and applied research in the humanities, sciences and technology," he said, "while seeking to integrate these various perspectives in promising and productive ways." With strong research areas in Japanese studies, and an endowed chair in Japanese literature, the Division of Arts and Humanities is well positioned to expand the current ties between the two universities into the liberal arts.
|
|
Kyoto University Opening Reception.
Photo courtesy of Dr. Makoto Azuma, Kyoto University San Diego Liaison Office |
|
|
HISTORY
|
|
|
Nir Shafir recently completed a
Council of American Overseas Research Centers' Mediterranean Regional Research
Fellowship, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, to support 122 days of travel for his project entitled, "The Road from Damascus: Mobility, Material
Culture, and the Redefinition of Islam in an Ottoman Holy Land, 1620-1720."
Shafir conducted intensive archival research in the manuscript libraries of the southern Mediterranean from September 2016 to May 2017 for this book project. His approach included material culture and book history to reinterpret the history of
Islamic religious transformation in the eastern Mediterranean during the 17th century. READ MORE
|
|
|
|
Nir Shafir with graduate students. Photo by Farshid Bazmandegan
|
|
|
|
Robert Edelman
was featured on ESPN in an
interview
about his
recently published book, "The Oxford Handbook of Sports History."
|
Professor
Mark Hanna
set sail again during spring quarter with students from
"The History of Seafaring During the Age of Sail"
course. This year, the class was held aboard the
San Salvador
, a replica of the historic ship captained by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in the 16th century when he first came ashore in San Diego. Students embody the lesson as they perform duties of the crew---operating rigging, steering the vessel and manipulating the sails. Some even succumbed to the rising and ebbing swells with a bout of sea sickness. The hands-on experience embodies the reality of sailors from yore who made their living on the high seas. As one student said,"Professor Hanna wants us to understand people from the past with empathy. This experience gives me a greater appreciation of what they went through." Joining the UC San Diego crew of history students and friends was alumnus and president/CEO of the Martime Museum Association Raymond Ashley.
|
|
|
Department Chair Yingjin Zhang announced some "items of honor" for the department. These include the following faculty distinctions:
- Lily Hoang, a new associate professor of creative writing, completed a summer writer-in-residence in South Africa.
- Robert Cancel was awarded the 2017 "Distinguished Faculty Service Award" by Thurgood Marshall College for his excellence in teaching, robust support of literature and dedication to Thurgood Marshall College.
- Fatima El-Tayeb - UCHRI Winter 2017 Residential Research Group Co-convener, "Queer of Color Formations and Translocal Spaces in Europe"
- Camille Forbes won a Hambidge Center Creative Residency, 2017, for her novel-in-progress, "Minding the Territory."
- Rosaura Sanchez was selected by the GSA for the 2017 Faculty Mentorship Award.
- Brandom Som is serving a residency at the Civiatella Ranieri Foundation in Umbria, Italy, 2017.
- Jorge Omar Ramirez received a President's Dissertation Year Diversity Fellowship for 2017-2018.
|
|
MUSIC
|
|
|
|
|
| Steven Schick |
|
|
Steven Schick
is taking UC San Diego music to
Canada's Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity this summer. The distinguished professor of music, Reed Family Presidential Chair holder, and music director and conductor of La Jolla Symphony and Chorus is serving as co-artistic director of Banff Centre's 2017 Summer Classical Music Series. In the role, Schick, along with flautist Claire Chase, is creating programming under the theme of "Create, Refine, Amplify" that features a strong focus on chamber music plus new approaches to help develop classical musicians' skills and careers. The program attracts hundreds of individual participants, established groups and renowned composers from around the world. READ MORE
|
|
The Department of Music announced its
recipients for academic achievement and service during the 2016-2017 academic year:
|
- The Nee Prize - Michael Matsuno
- The Jazz Society Award - Tommy Babin
- The Erickson Prize - Joe Cantrell
- Carolyn Applebaum Endowed Prize (est. Spring 2017) - Caroline Louise Miller
- Teaching Assistant (TA) Excellence Awards - Jonathan Nussman & Jennifer Hsu
- First-Year TA Excellence Award - Joseph Bourdeau
|
The Department of Music announced its
recipients for academic achievement and service during the 2016-2017 academic year include:
|
- The Cheatham Prize - Alec Hamilton
- The Erickson Prize - Ryan Matsumura
- The Farrell Prize - Hesam Abedini
- The Dr. Milton H. Saier, Sr. Memorial Award - Michael Cohn and Dana Marie Chan
- The Stewart Prize - Niloufar Shiri
- The Bertram Turetzky Award - March Olsher
- The Jazz Society Award - Garrett Sigler
- ICAM-Music Award - Creative: Todd Everett
- ICAM-Music Award - Research: Joshua Gomez
- Student Ambassadors 2016-17 - Certificate of Appreciation: Michael Cohn, Marc Olsher, David Dong, Forest Reid and Joshua Gomez
|
|
|
PHILOSOPHY
|
|
|
|
|
| Paulina Pineda-Severiano |
|
|
UC San Diego philosophy and literature double-major
Paulina Pineda-Severiano has been awarded the 2017 Allison Prize, an award for UC San Diego's most outstanding philosophy major who is going on to graduate study. Paulina was born in Mexico City, but grew up in the city of San Luis Potosi. She began higher education at Southwestern Community College in Chula Vista in 2008 as a philosophy major, earning an Associate's Degree in 2012. She began studying philosophy at UC San Diego in 2014 and later petitioned to obtain a degree in Spanish literature. While on campus, she was awarded a scholarship by the McNair program and presented her research on indigenous literature at two McNair conferences---one at UC San Diego and the other at UC Berkeley. This fall she will begin the Ph.D. program in comparative literature at Princeton University, where she plans to continue her research on indigenous literature. The Allison Prize is made possible by a generous continuing donation from Emeritus Professor Henry Allison.
|
|
The department held its end-of-year party for faculty, students and staff near the conclusion of spring quarter. The event took place at Zanzibar Café at the Loft with speeches and Bocce Ball
on the grass in Town Center.
|
|
|
|
|
Philosophy department members gather during their end-of-year celebration. Photo by Farshid Bazmandegan
|
|
|
|
|
THEATRE & DANCE
|
|
|
La Jolla Playhouse announced the performances for their 2017 Without Walls Festival of immersive and site-specific work, running Oct. 19-22. Co-founded by BA alumnus and MFA design faculty professor
Robert Brill
, Sledgehammer Theatre will present Charles Mee's "Under Construction: An American Masque," directed by BA alumnus Scott Feldsher and produced in association with UC San Diego's Department of Theatre and Dance at the Bread & Salt art gallery. Set in a banquet hall, the work will contain a collage of America today. Other performances will include work by Mimi Lien, Trisha Brown Dance Company and Gob Squad.
|
|
|
MFA Playwriting alumnus
Mat Smart's
new play, "Kill Local," is in rehearsals at La Jolla Playhouse. The production is directed by Jackson Gay and opened August 1. MFA stage management alumna Laura Zingle is the assistant stagemanager and two current MFA students are doing their
residencies
on the production: Kasson Marroquin, stage management, and Samantha Rojales, scenic design.
|
|
PREVIEW OF 2017-2018 SEASON
- What of the Night? by Maria Irene Fornes, directed by Katie Pearl (annual Quinn Martin production)
- The Green Cockatoo by Arthur Schnitzler, directed by Marco Barricelli
- She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen, directed by Jennifer Chang
- A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, directed by Kim Rubinstein
- winterWORKS dance, directed by Yolande Snaith
|
FOR MORE NEWS,
|
|
|
VISUAL ARTS
|
|
|
|
| "A Step Away" installations. Photo by Farshid Bazmandegan |
|
The diversity and talent of graduating University of California San Diego artists was on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (MCASD) through May. Entitled,
"A Step Away: Artists from the MFA Program at UC San Diego,
" the exhibition alluded to the participating artists as a "step away" from their UC San Diego studios and toward commencement. The now-graduated artists included Trevor Amery, Michael Ano, Seth Ferris, Saúl Hernández-Vargas, Audrey Hope, Morgan Mandalay, Erick Msumanje, Amy Reid, Joshua Saunders, Patrick Shields and Patricia Zambrano. Department of Visual Arts' professor Anya Gallaccio served as faculty liaison for the exhibition, which was co-curated by UC San Diego art history, theory and criticism Ph.D. alumna Lara Bullock and by MCASD assistant curator Anthony Graham.
|
|
Department of Visual Arts professor Sheldon Brown and M.F.A. candidate Jon Paden are
partnering with scholars in the departments of Neuroscience, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Nanoengineering on a project entitled, "Tromper soi-même: Fooling the senses with new techniques of combined visual and afferent Augmented Reality (AR) rendering of sight and touch." The
researchers inspired by the visual illusion "Trompe L'oeil," or "fooling the eye," are bringing together computer-based visual rendering techniques with nano-material physical sensation to take this notion a step further---"Tromer soi-même"---to fool the mind." Their AR research explores the implications and boundaries of communicating through touch. READ MORE
|
|
|
|
Project AR image.
Photo courtesy of Jon Paden
|
|
|
| DO YOU HAVE NEWS TO SHARE? |
|
|
|
THREE PROFESSORS WIN HELLMAN AWARDS
|
Congratulations are in order for three Arts and Humanities faculty members who have won 2017-2018 Hellman Fellowships:
Natacha Diels, Music;
Simeon Man, History; and
Julie Burelle, Theatre.
The coming academic year
marks the 23rd year of the Hellman Fellowship program that provides financial support and encouragement to young faculty who show capacity for great distinction in their research and creative activities in core disciplines. Funds awarded are intended as one-time support for activities that will enhance each individual's progress toward tenure. To qualify for consideration, faculty recipients must have shown their promise of distinction for at least two years
as assistant professors before receiving the award. The maximum award amount is $50,000. The Hellman Fellowship Program was established at UC San Diego in 1995 through the generosity of Chris Hellman and the late Warren Hellman.
|
|
|
ADVANCEMENT AND ALUMNI NEWS
|
|
|
Artwork by the Department
of Theatre & Dance |
|
UPCOMING FUNDRAISER: ARTISTS OF THE FUTURE
SEPTEMBER 23, 2017
Help celebrate the 90th birthday of Molli Wagner, wife of the late Arthur Wagner, founding chair of the top-ranked Department of Theatre & Dance at the second annual "Artists of the Future" event. The development team and department faculty, staff and friends are teaming up to sponsor this special fundraising event to benefit the Theatre and Dance Performing Arts Endowment at UC San Diego. Contact
Mark Maltby
for more information and to RSVP.
|
FILM SCREENING FUNDRAISER SUCCESS: EAST LA INTERCHANGE
The Division of Arts and Humanities and Jewish Family Service
hosted a special reception and film screening of documentary East L.A. Interchange during spring quarter. The film tells the story of Boyle Heights, the oldest, working-class, immigrant neighborhood in East Los Angeles. The evening concluded with commentary by a panel of esteemed guests, including film director,
Betsy Kalin
, and director of the UC San Diego Institute of Arts & Humanities Professor
Luis Alvarez
, among others.
|
|
|
|
| Kamil Media Award winners with the Kamils (center). Photo by Farshid Bazmandegan |
|
VISUAL ARTS HOLDS 7TH ANNUAL KAMIL MEDIA AWARDS
The 7th Annual
Adam Douglas Kamil Media Awards took place at the Adam D. Kamil Gallery on campus in May. Adam was a UC San Diego visual arts media major with a passion for the power of media to connect people. To honor his memory, the Kamil family established the annual awards event to help undergraduates realize their creative potential and polish their skills in film production. This year, 22 films produced by undergraduate students across campus were submitted. The winners were
Jia Chen, grand prize winner for
2008, 8 Years;
Justin Ricafort and
Francis Ramirez, finalists, for
Fishbowl and
EROS, respectively;
Grason Caldwell, honorable mention, for
Redbird, and
Ernesto Munoz and
Lily Gee, honorable mention, for
el danhuang.
|
|
Gifts play an important role in keeping the "nonTradition" of UC San Diego and the Division of Arts and Humanities. For information about giving opportunities, plesae contact Sr. Director of Development Julie Bronstein. |
|
|
FORMER MFA STUDENT PUBLISHES BOOK BASED ON THESIS
Kaitlin Solimine recently published her first novel, "
Empire of Glass," which is an extension of her MFA in creative writing thesis. Solimine has been a Fulbright Fellow in China and has received several scholarships, awards and residencies for her writing, including the 2012 Dzanc Books/Disquiet International Literary Program Award for an earlier draft of Empire of Glass. Her fiction has been published in Guernica, Kartika Review, and numerous anthologies. Kaitlin is co-founder of Hippo Reads, a network connecting academic insights and scholars to the wider public. She resides in San Francisco with her husband and daughter, where she was a 2016 SF Grotto Writing Fellow and is associate producer of the childbirth documentary, Of Woman Born.
|
|
|
ALUMNI NAMES 'NEW DRAMATISTS'
New Dramatists
, an artistic home and developmental laboratory for professional playwrights, has added eight writers to its resident playwright company. Two of the writers are UC San Diego alumni: Jiehae Park (MFA, acting)
and Andrea Stolowitz (MFA, playwriting). Along with the other N
ew Dramatists, Park and Stolowitz will be in-residence for through the year 2024. These talented theater artists were selected from 415 highly competitive applicants. New Dramatists will kick off their seven-year residencies with an evening of readings and celebration at the annual New Playwright Welcome in the fall.
|
|
'THE ARTIST' AND 'THE WRITER' AMONG DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI CELEBRATED
Renowned division alumni
Carrie Mae Weems, "The Artist" and
Rachel Axler, "The Writer," were among the honorees recognized during Alumni Weekend in June.
READ MORE
|
|
DIVISION WEBSITE CHANGES UNDERWAY
The division is revising its website. The goal is to represent in a balanced and user-friendly fashion the division and its departments with crisp and concise content, lively and vibrant graphics and images, university branding and easy navigation. Thank you for your patience as we embark upon this revision. To see our progress, please visit ah.ucsd.edu
.
|
DIVISION WELCOMES ITS NEWEST STAFF MEMBERS
|
|
|
| Farshid Bazmandegan |
|
|
The Division of Arts and Humanities is pleased to introduce as a new staff member and new graduate of UC San Diego Division of Arts and Humanities,
Farshid Bazmandegan.
Farshid is a talented multimedia artist and photographer who founded and presided over Triton Art, the only active visual arts student organization at UC San Diego. Before graduating in June 2017, he also interned at the Stuart Collection, ArtPower and in the Dean's Office of the Division of Arts and Humanities. Additionally, he curated several on-campus exhibitions and won various awards as a student. He is currently the program promotions coordinator for the division and works to prepare content and design materials that promote the division. He also lends his photography skills to various divisional and departmental events. To meet Farshid and welcome him to the AH family, stop by the dean's office suites on the third floor of the Literature Building.
|
|
The division is also pleased to welcome
Cindy Lee
as the new data systems manager. She has been acting as a project consultant for the division during the last three years and helped to successfully launch the arts and humanities freshmen portfolio pilots.
Cindy joins the division from the UC San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) where she served as the manager overseeing the web, database and applications group for over 15 years. Under her direction, the SDSC Business Office developed a suite of business applications and an integrated data management system. Her skill will help the division develop and implement similar tools to help manage the growing workload.
Cindy is an alumna of UC San Diego with almost 23 years of service. Before working at SDSC, she worked at the Jacobs School of Engineering, the Department of Chemistry and at AMES (now the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering). Her office is on the third floor of the Literature Building. Please stop by to say hello to Cindy during your next visit.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pamela Radcliff
(History)
Wiley Blackwell
|
& Wayne Wilson
Oxford University Press
|
Brian (B+) Cross
(Visual Arts)
University of Texas Press
|
Michael Provence (History)
Cambridge University Press (July 31, 2017)
|
|
|
STAY CONNECTED - FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA!
|
|
|
|
|
|
