SMU has just announced its new faculty appointments for the coming academic year. There are some notable names among the ten hires, including former Dallas Symphony concertmaster Emanuel Borok (now a distinguished artist-in-residence) and artist-in-residence John Selya, a Broadway performer and dancer perhaps best known for his roles in the Twyla Tharp-conceived-and-choreographed musicals, Movin’ Out and Come Fly Away.

But the dance department also gets another new faculty member with choreographer Anne Westwick — who joins her husband, Christopher Dolder, already on the SMU dance faculty — and art history gets two newbies as well, both specialists in Latin America: Robert Conduru, professor of art history and theory at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, and Luis Pelaez, who has lectured on the culture of colonial Spanish America at UT-Austin.

SMU also boosts the business /legal end of cultural education with a new instructor in Arts Management and Arts Entrepreneurship (Kathleen Gallagher) and another for the Meadows Communications Studies Division (Cara Jacocks).

The full roster comes after the jump:

SMU MEADOWS SCHOOL OF THE ARTS WELCOMES 10 NEW FACULTY MEMBERS FOR 2013-14 ACADEMIC YEAR

Meadows School Adds Faculty to Divisions of Dance, Music, Art History, Arts Management, Journalism, Creative Computation and Communication Studies

 

DALLAS (SMU) – The Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, has added 10 new distinguished faculty members to departments across the school, including Tony-nominated actor and ballet prodigy John Selya and internationally renowned violinist Emanuel Borok. New faculty will also join the rapidly growing divisions of Arts Management & Arts Entrepreneurship and Creative Computation, among others.

“At Meadows, we create an unparalleled educational experience by hiring artists and faculty who have outstanding industry experience, are cutting edge in their fields and are exceptional instructors,” said José Bowen, dean of the Meadows School of the Arts. “Our new professors and artists-in-residence will join a superb, dedicated faculty in the intimate and inspiring environment that is uniquely Meadows.”

John Selya, who will be an artist-in-residence in Meadows’ dance department, has performed in four Broadway musicals since his 2003 debut in Movin’ Out, a performance for which he received four major international awards and nominations. Selya is classically trained in ballet, with an 11-year tenure at the American Ballet Theatre and principal roles in dozens of classical and contemporary works. Adam Hougland, also classically trained in ballet, came to Meadows in 2011 and will be continuing his residency alongside Selya. The principal choreographer for the Louisville Ballet and resident choreographer for the Cincinnati Ballet, Hougland has created works for numerous prestigious companies – including a world premiere for Juilliard that was featured on PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center. He has received multiple significant awards, and among other distinctions was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to watch” in 2011.

Emanuel Borok, a new distinguished artist-in-residence in music, comes to Meadows with more than four decades of professional experience. His previous roles include associate concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra; co-concertmaster of the Moscow Philharmonic; and, from 1985 until his retirement in 2010, concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He is an internationally known soloist, orchestral leader, chamber musician, recording artist and teacher whose master classes are in demand worldwide. At Meadows he will teach a select group of undergraduate and graduate violin students from the U.S. and around the world.

Other new faculty members include visiting professor Yong Bakos (Creative Computation); visiting assistant professor Chelsea Bell (Journalism); visiting professor Roberto Conduru (Art History); instructor Kathleen Gallagher (Arts Management and Arts Entrepreneurship); visiting lecturer Cara Jacocks (Communication Studies); visiting assistant professor Luis Peláez (Art History); and visiting lecturer Anne Westwick (Dance).

Yong Bakos is an experienced software craftsman and educator who will be coming to the Meadows School from Colorado School of Mines, where he was the assistant department head of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Prior to his teaching career, Bakos was a lead developer at AT&T Broadband/Comcast, where he constructed the entire AT&T Broadband customer service web portal. He joins the Meadows Department of Creative Computation, one of the most innovative programs of its kind, a multidisciplinary major combining engineering, computer science and the arts.

Chelsea Bell’s teaching expertise includes fashion journalism, fashion design, history of fashion and studio art. Bell has been a guest lecturer at a number of institutions, including the Dallas Museum of Art. Her past lecture topics have included “Students and the Design Process,” “Art and a Career in Fashion Design,” “Defining Fashion Today” and “The 1970s: Spotlight on Designers.” At Meadows, Bell will teach courses for the new fashion media major, a unique program that trains students for journalism, photography and public relations careers in the fashion industry.

Roberto Conduru is professor of art history and theory at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, where he specializes in modern, contemporary and Afro-Brazilian art. He is the author of six monographs and over 20 edited books on modern and contemporary artists, Afro-Brazilian art and architecture. He is also active as a curator, art critic and international collaborator; as a Senior Fellow at the Getty Research Institute in 2012, he launched a “Connecting Art Histories” initiative with art history programs throughout Latin America. At SMU, he will teach courses in contemporary Latin American art.

Kathleen Gallagher, who will join Meadows as an instructor in the Arts Management and Arts Entrepreneurship Division, is completing a doctoral degree with a primary academic interest in the sustainability of arts and culture organizations. She has an M.B.A. in marketing and arts management and a master’s degree in modern art, connoisseurship and the history of the art market. Her numerous organizational affiliations include membership in the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action and accreditation by the International Society of Appraisers as a certified appraiser of fine arts. Her research focus is on how particular sources of government funding affect the sustainability of the arts, and at Meadows, she will be teaching graduate-level studies.

Cara Jacocks will be joining the Meadows Communication Studies Division with a professional background in the corporate, legal and media sectors of communication, as well as B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in communications. Her doctoral dissertation at Texas A&M University focused on the dialectics of women’s entrepreneurship, and prior academic emphases include various topics in psychology, conflict resolution and organizational communication. She is a published scholar with primary authorship of numerous journal articles and conference papers and has won several teaching awards.

Luis Peláez’s professional and academic expertise is Latin American art history. Previously, Peláez has lectured on the culture of Colonial Spanish America in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas, Austin, and was a visiting scholar at the university’s Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies. Peláez holds three art history degrees from Complutense University in Madrid, and he completed a graduate program in Latin American studies and art history at the University of California, Berkeley.

Anne Westwick teaches ballet and modern dance. She has performed, taught, and choreographed for over 20 years, as well as co-directed the Westwick/Dolder Dance Theater in California with her husband, Christopher Dolder, who is also on the SMU dance faculty.

ABOUT THE MEADOWS SCHOOL OF THE ARTS

The Meadows School of the Arts, established in 1969 at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, is one of the foremost arts education institutions in the United States. It comprises 11 areas of study: the Temerlin Advertising Institute, art, art history, arts management and arts entrepreneurship, communication studies, creative computation, dance, film and media arts, journalism, music and theatre. The goal of the Meadows School of the Arts is to prepare students to meet the demands of professional careers, as well as to provide opportunities for all SMU students and the broader Dallas community to grow in the understanding and appreciation of the arts.

 

 

 

While maintaining the highest level of craft in all of its disciplines, the Meadows School aims to be the most innovative arts and communications school in the country, developing new curricular initiatives including the first master’s degree in international arts management and a number of interdisciplinary minors such as arts entrepreneurship. The Meadows School is a leader in developing pioneering outreach and community engagement programs, challenging its students to make a difference locally and globally by developing connections between art, entrepreneurship and social change.