Arts & Humanities

English alumnus Dick Shahan recently made a $75,000 gift commitment to CU-Boulder — $50,000 of which established an endowment to create the Dick Shahan CU-Boulder Undergraduate Writing Competition, expected to generate an annual prize of $2,000 for a prose piece that features Boulder. The additional $25,000 will fund the Shahan Graduate Fellowships in the CU-Boulder English Department, providing an annual $1,000 research grant for an English graduate student.

University of Colorado Boulder Provost Russell L. Moore today announced the appointment of a new dean for the College of Music. The new dean will be Robert Shay, director of the School of Music at the University of Missouri in Columbia. His appointment will begin Sept. 1.

The Mazal Holocaust Collection, considered the world’s largest privately owned Holocaust archive and the most significant U.S. collection outside of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., has been donated to the University of Colorado Boulder.

This spring CU-Boulder’s Center for Asian Studies is launching a new Asian Studies minor , open to all students on campus, with the goal of helping students understand Asia as a region beyond one particular nation.

A renowned Seoul-based artist will use steel ground into a fine, black powder to write calligraphic inscriptions on the floor of the CU-Boulder Visual Arts Complex on Feb. 11, followed by a performance-art piece and a lecture by the artist. This is one of several free events during the two-week residency of Kim Jongku at the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Art and Art History. Kim works in sculpture, video, painting and photography and will be in residency here Feb. 3 to Feb. 14.

University of Colorado Boulder Provost Russell L. Moore today announced two finalists for the position of dean of the College of Music. The finalists for the position are Mary Ellen Poole, former dean of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Robert Shay, director of the School of Music at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

The director of CU-Boulder’s journalism program has won a prestigious national award for challenging the “presumed centrality” of René Descartes’ groundbreaking theory of mind in 17th century French culture.

Some of the University of Colorado Boulder’s most promising musicians will receive scholarships thanks to Anna and John J. Sie, who have committed $2 million to establish the Daniel and Boyce Sher Distinguished Musicians Endowment. Beginning in fall 2014, these Sher Distinguished Scholars (either undergraduate or graduate students) will be awarded full-ride scholarships to the College of Music based on their demonstrated exceptional ability and potential to excel at a national and international level.

Seven University of Colorado Boulder faculty and staff have received Fulbright grants to pursue research, teaching and training abroad during the 2013-14 academic year. One of their proposed projects involves research in India on the use of the tanbura -- a long-necked stringed instrument -- as an aid for developing musical perception and intonation. Another involves research and lecturing in the United Kingdom on the representation of violence in contemporary Irish and American fiction.

CU-Boulder Alumni Association news release Since 1930 the University of Colorado Boulder’s best have been recognized at a special awards ceremony dedicated to highlighting their outstanding accomplishments and extraordinary service.