2007-08 Academic Year
I hope that you have enjoyed a rich, relaxing, and productive break. Michael Roth’s move (from CCA to the president’s office at Wesleyan University) this past summer, and CCA’s search for a new president headline the updates in the Academic Affairs newsletter. I urge all CCA faculty members to become actively involved in the process of choosing the next president of the college. Please refer to CCA’s website for current information about the search committee. As the process moves forward, it is essential that faculty help identify candidates, meet the finalists, and give feedback to the faculty representatives (Kim Anno, Barry Katz, and Emily McVarish) serving on the Presidential Search Committee.
As you begin preparations for the next academic year, I hope you will also take a few moments to read about some of the changes, improvements, and new colleagues that you will encounter when you return to campus.
Administrative Changes
While we search for a president, I want to remind faculty to welcome our newest vice-president. Pamela Jennings joined the college in July as CCA’s vice-president of Student Affairs. Pamela holds a BA in mass communications from UC, Berkeley and an MFA in film and television from UCLA. She joins us from the University of California, Berkeley where she held the position of director of Admissions, Student Services, and Alumni Affairs in the Graduate School of Journalism. Previously, she was the director of outreach, retention and diversity affairs for the graduate division, also at Berkeley. As the college continues to grow, and we increase our first-time freshman enrollments, student affairs remains an area of focus. Under the direction of Dean Liz Pointer we have expanded the staff and increased our programs. As Liz continues her good work as dean, Pamela will increase our emphasis on student retention and add strategic planning to this important area of the college.
Other Changes
Melanie Corn, associate dean, will replace Martin Van Buren as CCA’s accreditation liaison officer. Melanie has done a great job working with faculty and staff in preparation for our WASC Capacity Review in October. Thanks to Melanie, and all who have contributed to our efforts so far—there is more to come!
Program Chair Update
Architecture – Lisa Findley will continue as chair through the fall. In January, Ila Berman joins the CCA faculty as chair of the Architecture Program. Please join me in thanking Lisa Findley for her continuing, dynamic, leadership.
Animation – CCA’s newest undergraduate major commences this fall under the leadership of CCA faculty member Andrew Lyndon.
Community Arts – Starting in January, new CCA faculty member Sanjit Sethi will chair this important undergraduate major.
Critical Studies – Thanks to Kari Weil for her excellent work and welcome to Julian Carter who will chair critical studies in the fall.
Fashion – Amy Williams has been appointed to a three-year term as chair with Jean Oppermann as assistant chair.
Graphic Design – Mark Fox is taking a well-earned sabbatical. Serving as interim chair is CCA faculty member Cinthia Wen, with Jean Craig-Teerlink as assistant chair.
Interior Design – Katherine Lambert has been renewed for another three-year term as chair.
Media Arts – Barney Haynes is taking a sabbatical year. During 2007-08, Rob Epstein (assisted by Kota Ezawa) will serve as interim program chair.
Photography – Prior to assuming full responsibility in 2008, Tammy Rae Carland will share leadership of the Photography Program with Susan Ciriclio during the 2007-08 academic year.
Printmaking – Thomas Wojak will serve as interim chair during Nance O’Banion’s sabbatical.
Sculpture– Mark Thompson will serve as interim chair during Linda Fleming’s sabbatical.
Visual and Critical Studies – Tirza Latimer takes over from Mabel Wilson as the chair of the newly named MA Program in Visual and Critical Studies.
Writing and Literature – Juvenal Acosta has agreed to extend his program leadership for one more year.
Faculty Changes and Additions
Nothing contributes more to the identity of CCA (and secures our ongoing commitment to excellence) than our faculty. Last year we completed a record number of searches for new faculty appointments. National searches require a significant investment from the college and an enormous amount of faculty time and energy. Many thanks to those who served on faculty search committees. I hope you feel as I do, that the results are more than worth the effort.
Please join me in welcoming your new colleagues, congratulating the advancement of old friends, and offering good wishes to those moving on.
Promotions to Rank
Hearty congratulations to CCA faculty members Thom Faulders and Joseph Lease who were awarded tenure. Look forward to announcements of public presentations of their work, to be scheduled this fall. Congratulations also to Kim Anno and Mie Preckler, our newest Full Professors!
New Tenure-Track Hires
Ila Berman: Ila holds a doctorate of design and a master of design studies, both in architecture, from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Her BArch (summa cum laude) is from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Ila comes to CCA from Tulane University, where she has been associate dean of the School of Architecture since 2004. She is also the director of the graduate program, a Harvey-Wadsworth Professor of Urbanism, a women’s studies faculty associate, and a member of the executive advisory board of the Newcomb College Institute, an academic center dedicated to enhancing women’s education at Tulane. Before her association with Tulane, which began in 1994, she held teaching positions at Harvard University, the Cooper Union, and the Illinois Institute of Technology. Ila will join the CCA faculty in January as chair of the Architecture Program.
David Gissen: David earned an MArch from Yale University and a BS in architecture from the University of Virginia. He is finishing up his PhD from University College London. He joins the CCA architecture faculty from Pennsylvania State University where he has been an assistant professor in the department of architecture since 2002. He has also taught at American University, Washington, D.C. and Maryland Institute College of Art. David also served as curator of architecture and design at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. He has received several prestigious grants including two from the Graham Foundation for the Advancement of Fine Art in Chicago. He is the editor of Big and Green: Toward Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century (Princeton Architectural Press, 2002).
Andrew Kudless: Andrew holds an MA degree in emergent technology and design from the Architectural Association, London, and an MArch from Tulane University. He was a Fulbright Fellow at Kyoto Seika University, Kyoto, Japan. He comes to CCA from Ohio State University’s Knowlton School of Architecture, where he has been an assistant professor since 2006. Andrew has exhibited work internationally including From Diagram to Code, or The Computational Turn of Contemporary Architecture, Maison de L’Architecture de la Ville, Marseille, France, 2007; and Emerging Talents, Emerging Technologies, Architecture Biennial Bejing 2006. His work was the subject of a recent article by Michael Weinstock in Praxis, Issue 9.
Tirza True Latimer: Tirza received a PhD in art history from Stanford University, and an MA from UC, Davis, and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College. She comes to CCA from Yale University where she was a lecturer in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies and the history of art. She has held visiting teaching positions at numerous schools including CCA, the San Francisco Art Institute, UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University, Williamette University, UC Davis, Stanford University, and Mills College. She has published numerous articles and essays and is the author of Women Together/Women Apart: Portraits of Lesbian Paris (Rutgers University Press, 2005). With Whitney Chadwick she edited The Modern Woman Revisited: Paris Between the Wars (Rutgers University Press, 2003). Tirza will chair the Graduate Program in Visual and Critical Studies.
John Leaños: John joins the Community Arts faculty with additional teaching in Social Practices and Media Arts. He earned his BA and MFA from San Francisco State University and he comes to CCA from Arizona State University where he has been an assistant professor since 2003. John has also been a Fellow at the Center for Arts in Society, Carnegie Mellon University, and an Artist-in-Residence at the Center for Chicano Studies, UC Santa Barbara. John has exhibited his work (which ranges from films to public art projects, performances, and more) nationally and internationally at the Sundance Film Festival 2006; Arte Nuevo Interactiva, Olimpo Cultural Center, Merida, Mexico, 2006; El Muertorider, Oakland Museum, 2006; and The Whitney Biennial 2002.
Colin Owen: Colin is CCA’s first tenure-track hire in Industrial Design. He earned a masters degree of industrial design from Art Center College of Design in 2005 and a BArch from Rice University in 2003. Colin has exhibited his work in galleries and on the web and has a growing list of impressive contract work with design and architecture firms including Nokia; Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, LLP; Biodesign; and Wireless Generation.
Aimee Phan: Aimee joins the CCA faculty in writing and literature. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop and a BA in English from UCLA. She has taught at Washington State University, UNLV, and the University of Iowa. She is the author of We Should Never Meet, (St. Martin’s Press, 2004), a linked short-story collection that was a Kiriyama Prize notable book and a finalist for the Asian American Literacy Award. Her fiction has also been included in: Nha Magazine, Michigan Quarterly Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Prairie Schooner, Chelsea 74, Colorado Review, and other publications.
Sanjit Sethi: Sanjit will join CCA in January as a faculty member in Community Arts with additional teaching in the Graduate Division and Sculpture Program. Sanjit received his Masters of Science in advanced visual studies from MIT, an MFA from the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia, and a BFA from Alfred University. He comes to CCA from the Memphis College of Art where he directed the MFA Program. He has held visiting faculty positions at MIT, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana, and Srishti School of Art, Design, and Technology, Bangalore, India. His work has been exhibited in the United States and India.
Joseph Tanke: Joseph joins CCA as the Chalsty Professor of Aesthetics and Philosophy in the Critical Studies Program. He earned his BA in philosophy and art history from John Carroll University and his MA and PhD in philosophy from Boston College. Joseph comes to CCA from Boston College where he was twice awarded the Donald J. White Teaching Excellence Award. His publications include The Care of the Self and Environmental Politics: Toward a Foucaultian Account of Dietary Practice (forthcoming), and he was guest editor of Philosophy and Social Criticism: Twenty Years After Foucault (2005).
New Ranked, Non-Tenure Hires
Tom Barbash: A former Wallace Stegner fellow at Stanford University, Tom has an MFA from University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop. His books include The Last Good Chance (Picador, 2002) and On Top of the World. Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick and 9/11: A Story of Loss and Renewal (Harper Collins, 2003). His latest short story collection, The Break, is under option with Picador. Tom was the visiting distinguished writer at St. Mary’s College in spring 2007 and he has received numerous awards and honors including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literature, a Yaddo Colony fellowship, and distinction as a San Francisco Library laureate.
Claudia Bernardi: Claudia holds an honorary doctor of fine arts degree from the College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio, and an MFA in painting and education from National Institute of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She also earned an MA and MFA from UC Berkeley. Claudia has worked extensively as an artist and activist. Her work has been exhibited internationally and she is the subject of an award winning documentary film Artists of Resistance: The Art and Work of Claudia Bernardi. She is also the creator and director of the School of Art and Open Studio of Perquin in El Salvador. Her work is represented in numerous museum collections including The Honolulu Academy of Arts; Mirasaka Peace Museum of Art; the Oakland Museum of California; the Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; and Museo Nacional del Grabado in Buenos Aries.
Gloria Frym: Gloria received her BA and MA degrees in English from University of New Mexico. She is the author of nearly a dozen books as well as numerous reviews and articles. Her recent books include Solution Simulacra (United Artists, 2006); Homeless at Home (Creative Arts Book Company, 2001); Distance No Object (City Lights Books, 1999); and The Last Poems of Sappho (Effing Press, 2007). She has been a distinguished visiting writer at St. Mary’s College and has taught at San Francisco State University, the University of New Mexico, Naropa University, and Western Connecticut State University.
Mona El Khafif: Mona is completing her PhD from the Technical University of Vienna. She received her professional architecture degree from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, in 1996. She has been a visiting assistant professor at the Tulane University School of Architecture and an assistant professor at the Institute for Urban Development, Landscape Architecture, and Design. Mona’s research in the field of urban planning has led to numerous publications and she has participated in workshops and exhibited her work internationally.
Andrew Lyndon: Andrew earned his MFA from Yale University and his BFA from Bennington College. He has been the digital imaging and video instructor at Pixar Animation Studios since 1999 and served as the editor for the 2005 Siggraph Animation Festival. His independent film and video works and freelance animation productions have been screened nationally. He has taught locally at San Francisco State University, the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and Mission College in San Jose. Andrew will chair CCA’s new undergraduate Animation Program.
Rachel Schreiber: Rachel is completing her PhD in history at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. She also attended the Whitney Independent Study Program and earned her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from California Institute of the Arts. She comes to CCA from Maryland Institute College of Art, where she taught and directed the MA program in digital art.
Visiting Artists, Writers, Scholars
The growing visibility of our programs and faculty has helped us attract an impressive group of visiting faculty for 2007-08. They include:
Andrew Gordon: Animator Andrew Gordon has been at Pixar Animation Studios for ten years where he has worked on A Bug’s Life, Monster’s Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille. Prior to joining Pixar, he worked for Warner Bros. Animation. Gordon has lectured and presented master classes nationally and internationally.
Christian Jankowski: Berlin-based artist Christian Jankowski will teach a graduate fine arts class this fall in collaboration with students from the Art Academy in Stuttgart, Germany (Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste Stuttgart), where he is a professor of performance, video, and installation. He has exhibited his work internationally with recent solo shows at Maccarone, Inc. NYC; Lisson Gallery, London; The Kitchen, NYC; List Center for the Arts, MIT, Cambridge; Museum fuer Gegenwartskunst, Basel.
Ken Lum: Ken Lum, based in Vancouver, is a world-renowned visual artist, writer, and theorist. He also has been a committed and influential teacher through his appointments at Bard College and the University of British Columbia, among others. Ken’s work has been included in many of the most important group exhibitions of the past decade including the 10th Istanbul Biennial; the Liverpool Biennial; CCA’s Monuments for the USA and Baja to Vancouver, Documenta 1; Bienal de Havana; Shanghai Biennale; Cities on the Move, and inSite 97. He has also curated exhibitions including the 7th Sharjah Biennial and the Shanghai Modern: 1919-1945.
Daria Martin: The London-based artist Daria Martin earned a BA from Yale University and an MFA from UCLA. During the upcoming academic year she will have solo exhibitions at Maureen Paley, London; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the New Museum, New York; and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. In September she will be the first featured solo artist in the Wattis Institute’s Passengers exhibition.
Lisa Robertson: A celebrated poet, critic, and scholar, Lisa Robertson joins us from her home in France. Her multiple academic positions include Roberta C. Holloway Lecturer in the Practice of Poetry, University of California, Berkeley, fall 2006; visiting poet, American University of Paris, spring 2005; visiting poet, University of California, San Diego, spring 2003; Judith E. Wilson Visiting Poetry Fellow, Cambridge University, spring 1999. Her most recent books are The Men, Toronto (Bookthug, 2006); Occasional Works and Seven Walks from the Office for Soft Architecture, Astoria (Clearcut Press, 2003); The Weather, Vancouver (New Star Books, 2001). Lisa’s annual teaching assignments (including classes in writing/literature, critical studies, architecture, and fine arts) exemplify her trans-disciplinary interests and are indicative of the enormous breadth of knowledge and experience that she brings to CCA.
Martin Venezky: Designer Martin Venezky earned his BA from Dartmouth College and his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. He has taught design courses at California Institute of the Arts, Art Center College of Design, the Rhode Island School of Design, and CCA. He has delivered lectures and exhibited his work nationally and internationally. Through his firm, Appetite Engineers, he has designed numerous books and periodicals. Recent exhibitions have included Draw a Line and Follow It, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE); 50 Books 50 Covers, AIGA, NY; Reclassifying History, de Young Museum, San Francisco (collaboration with Catherine Wagner); and California Design Biennial, Pasadena Museum of California Art.
Mario Ybarra Jr.: Los Angeles-based artist and Capp Street Project resident, Mario Ybarra Jr., just completed a mural for the Wattis Institute. Mario will teach both graduate and undergraduate fine arts classes during the fall term. He received his MFA from UC Irvine, and his work has been included in numerous international exhibitions including The World as a Stage, Tate Modern, London; Prague Biennial 3, Prague, Czech Republic; 2006 California Biennial, Orange County Museum of Art; and Alien Nation, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
Separations
At the end of the 2006-07 academic year we were able to toast several long-serving faculty who retired from teaching. Michael McClure, Betsy Davids, Vince Perez, Margaret Mackenzie, and John Raeber were in attendance at the president’s house to receive the thanks and good wishes from their friends and colleagues. Sadly, in the fall, we will be without several other familiar faces.
Betty Jo Costanzo: is leaving CCA to focus on her studio practice.
Lydia Matthews: will take on the responsibilities of Associate Dean at Parsons in NYC.
Martin Van Buren: made a last minute decision to retire and will relocate to Southern California.
Mabel Wilson: has accepted a position to teach at Columbia University.
Each of these faculty members made enormous contributions to CCA and their presence will be missed. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors.
WASC (and NASAD) Accreditation Update
CCA submitted our Capacity and Preparatory Review Report to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), the major regional accreditation body, in July. The report relies on our strategic plan and its three main goals as the primary organizing document and outlines a number of successful developments in our capacity and preparation to deliver an effective education. These improvements include faculty growth and development, the implementation of student learning and program assessment structures, significant expansion of our physical and fiscal resources, the strengthening of faculty governance and communication, and the continued attention to recruitment and retention. Accreditation Liaison Officer Melanie Corn and H&S Program Manager and Advisor Dominick Tracy worked with a number of key administrators and faculty members on the completion of this report.
A WASC review team will visit CCA this fall, from October 10th through 12th, to gather information, speak to different constituencies, and evaluate our report. More details will be sent out to all faculty members about how you can participate in this important visit. The final part of the process, the Educational Effectiveness Review, will take place in spring 2009; at this time, CCA will also undergo our review from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD).
Educational Technology
by Cian Phillips, Director of Networks and Systems
Educational Technology Services (ETS) has been busy this summer. We have completely upgraded two computer labs, we have upgraded monitors in several other labs to 20-inch displays, we’re continuing to install digital projectors in classrooms, and we’re setting up more wireless access points. We have completed wiring and audiovisual for one new building and several reconfigured areas including the new graduate Design space in San Francisco and the new Animation program in Oakland.
We are especially excited to announce that we expect to improve our 4Mb San Francisco internet connection to 40Mb by early September.
The first stage of the Datatel implementation has been completed, allowing students to be processed, registered, and graded using the new system. Most of the business of the college is now being done using Datatel. Web interfaces for all of these functions are currently in active development in our test environment.
In a continuing effort to provide more support for faculty, we have hired Michelle Cernuto for a newly created instructional technologist position. She will help faculty integrate technology into the classroom and curriculum, develop new tools, and provide educational support through workshops, trainings, and documentation. In addition to Michelle we have hired a few other excellent new staff members and we have promoted some of our current staff to new positions. This is a dynamic and exciting time in ETS, and we expect continued improvements in user experience.
Campus Facilities Update
by Deborah Feldmann, Chief Facilities Officer
This past summer we’ve accomplished some major Facilities changes and upgrades that will enhance the use of both the San Francisco and Oakland campuses.
The third and final building will open in the Hooper Street Graduate Complex this coming semester. This new building will house seminar rooms, a computer lab, and offices for the graduate department staff on the first floor. The second floor will hold additional new individual graduate studios. With the completion of this last building the complex will change its main entrance to Hooper Street enabling us to enclose the entire center to maintain a safe and secure workspace, as well as a place that all graduate programs can use as an educational facility fully equipped for their needs.
With the purchase of the building formerly know as Orientations at the corner of de Haro and 15th Street the graduate writing program will now have a new home. This building includes a walled Japanese garden. Above the writing studios are two apartments that will be used by the college for visiting artists and faculty.
Renovation also continues as we gain additional space in the 80 Carolina Building. Financial Aid will move from their current space to the other end of the building on the first floor, giving them much more room to assist students and parents. On 15th Street at the same end of the building there will be a new seminar room for use by graduate social practices.
Within the Media Arts Program space in the Founders Building in Oakland we’ve created an Animation Studio to house this new program.
More painting classes will be taking place in San Francisco beginning in Fall 07. San Francisco studios along the Hooper Street side of the Montgomery campus have been renovated and reconfigured to accommodate additional painting and other studio classes.
We’ve carved out some space for a Student Lounge area in the San Francisco campus behind the current Materials Library off the Nave. This will give students a dedicated place to relax or use their laptops.
There is a new Graduate Design Center now located on the Irwin Street side of the Montgomery campus in San Francisco. This will house graduate studios as well as offices for program staff.
And finally, the San Francisco Media Center has been enlarged to better serve the needs of the campus and we’ve installed a flat panel screen outside of the Timken Lecture Hall in San Francisco for overflow viewing of events.