Hollis Robbins, Dean
Welcome! We begin the 2020-2021 academic year in the sixth month of the global Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown. While many things will be different – we won’t meet you in person for a while, you won’t see your professors in person, you most likely won’t get to eat with your classmates, you won’t hear live music or see live theatre for a while – many things will be the same in the School of Arts & Humanities. We will be offering a lively and rigorous menu of courses in Art Studio, Art History, Music, Philosophy, American Multicultural Studies, Theatre Arts & Dance, Modern Languages & Literatures, English, Chicano & Latinx Studies, Native American Studies, Communications & Media Studies, Film, and Liberal Studies.
Our faculty members have spent the summer exploring technology that will best support their teaching and that will interest and excite students about learning even when they are miles from the classroom. Here are just three examples:
In Art Studio Professor Clea Felien’s painting classes, students post images of their work-in-progress on their Canvas discussion board, giving fellow students the opportunity to discuss each other’s paintings at each stage of completion. Clea meets with students individually in breakout rooms and for the final critique share the assignment screen so that the entire class can see each image and all the students can critique each other.
Students in Music Professor and Associate Dean Jenny Bent’s choirs will experience music technology (Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Audition, A Capella, BandLab, and Camtasia) through a series of projects, including virtual choir performances. Students will rehearse on Zoom from digital music scores, participate in sectionals in break-out rooms, listen with headphones to a “guide track” video from which they can hear the accompaniment and watch Jenny conduct, and will video themselves singing their own part.
Students in Theatre Arts & Dance Chair and Professor of Dance Christine Cali’s classes will likewise fully utilize current technology to allow more detailed and specific feedback, individual attention for each dancer, as well as opportunities for peer observation and connection in Zoom breakout rooms.
Our faculty and staff have risen to the challenge with humor, innovation, and a commitment to the highest standards.
So, to all new A&H students: welcome! We look forward to meeting you in person soon and we will make every effort to be available to you by Zoom, phone, email, or text.
To returning A&H students: welcome back! You already know what we offer and we are glad to see you on screen for the time being.
To our A&H faculty: thank you for your commitment to an Arts & Humanities education that transcends the current challenges and enables our students to flourish, grow, learn, produce, comprehend, and create.
To all A&H staff: thank you for continuing to lead in providing remote engagement across the board to ensure we have the resources so that students can remain connected to faculty (and each other), faculty to chairs (and each other), chairs to the administration—in short, to ensure all individuals are connected to each other.
While you are here on our website, please take a moment to explore what we offer in the School of Arts & Humanities. You will find that our faculty are passionate about their teaching, scholarship and artistry. Their passion inspires our students in classrooms and studios every day, and attracts national recognition in fields as diverse as poetry and the philosophy of robotics,
Browse our departments, learn about internships,and our many exciting places in Arts and Humanities. Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.
Hollis Robbins, Ph.D.