Alumni in the News

Felicia Fitzpatrick (B.A. in Theatre and Dance, 2014) has completed the first season of “Call & Response,” a podcast that explores the intersection between blackness and performing arts through interviews with Broadway actors, dancers, writers, creatives, and more.

Leah Dyjak (M.F.A., Studio Art, 2015) has accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Video and Photography at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Dyjak’s work combines performance, labor, film and photography, and is represented by the Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown, MA.      

Ellen Tanner (B.F.A., Visual Art Studies, 2004) will present Fables, Families and Myths at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont from Dec. 16 through March 4. An opening reception is from 6 to 8 p.m., Dec. 15.

Roja Najafi (Ph.D., Art History, 2016) was announced curator of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. She will curate the spring exhibition, The New Art: A Controversial Collection 50 Years Later.

Alton DuLaney (B.F.A., Studio Art, 1995) will demonstrate holiday gift wrapping skills on Dec. 18 on "The Rachael Ray Show" and Dec. 21 on Harry Connick Jr.'s show, "Harry." DuLaney was also just elected to City Council in his hometown of Splendora, Texas.

Brandon Hendrix (D.M.A., Composition, 2010) serves as director of instrumental and choral ensembles and department chair at Eastern Oklahoma State College in Wilburton, Oklahoma, where he resides with his wife and two children. In addition to teaching private lessons and conducting the college's Concert Choir and Concert Band, Hendrix is actively involved in the school's Performing Arts Series.

The Department of Theatre and Dance's Performance as Public Practice featured an unprecedented number of alumni, faculty and current students presenting at the Dance Studies Association's (DSA) fall conference, “Transmissions and Traces: Rendering Dance.” Newly formed, DSA represents a merger of the Society of Dance History Scholars and the Congress on Research in Dance. Dr. Rebecca Rossen is currently the Editor of Studies in Dance History, the book series produced by the organization in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin Press. Alumna Clare Croft (Ph.D. 2010) will be taking over this leadership role when Dr. Rossen finishes her term.

Photo (L to R): Dr. Clare Croft (Ph.D., 2010, Assistant Professor at University of Michigan), Dr. Paul Bonin-Rodriguez (faculty), Dr. Rebecca Rossen (faculty), Dr. Angela Ahlgren (Ph.D. 2011, Assistant Professor at Bowling Green State), Meg Brooker (M.F.A. 2009, Assistant Professor at Middle Tennessee University), Christine Gwillim (Ph.D. student), Brianna Figueroa (Ph.D. student), Priya Raman (Ph.D. student). Not pictured, but present at the conference, Dr. Chuyun Oh (PhD 2015, Assistant Professor at San Diego State).

James Sclater's (D.M.A., Composition, 1970) music was recently featured at the Music in the City series at the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson. 

Jonas Criscoe (B.F.A., Studio Art, 2006) has work in Dimensions Gallery's Paved Garden, a large-scale outdoor curated sculpture exhibit. It is a collaboration between Dimensions Gallery and the City of Austin's Cultural Arts Division. 

Ade Omotosho (B.A., Art History, 2017) was named by the Pérez Art Museum Miami as the first participant for its Ford Foundation Curatorial Fellowship program.