TORONTO, March 24, 2008 -- Barbara Sellers-Young, a former dancer, choreographer and director has been named as the next dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at York University.
Sellers-Young, whose research on the intersections of dance, body and globalization has taken her around the world, will succeed Phillip Silver as the dean of the faculty after a continent-wide search. She begins her five-year term on July 1, 2008,
"York University is fortunate to have attracted such a strong international scholar and administrator as the new dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts," said president and vice-chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri. "We look forward to welcoming Barbara Sellers-Young to working with her to build on the strengths of the Faculty in the years to come. I also want to thank Dean Phillip Silver for his decade of leadership of the Faculty."
As a professor, Sellers-Young has taught at universities in England, China and Australia, while her research projects on the moving body have taken place in Sudan, Egypt, Nepal, Japan, China, England and Australia.
Sellers-Young is also president-elect for the Congress on Research in Dance – an international organization with 500 members that holds an annual conference as well as special conferences in Taiwan, Paris and Montreal, and publishes the Dance Research Journal.
"I believe this background will serve in the profile that York is creating as an international university,” said Sellers-Young. "It is a privilege and an honour to have the opportunity to work with a faculty that has a national and international reputation and at an institution that has a far-reaching educational mission."
In addition to an extensive academic background that includes administrative experience at the divisional and university levels, Sellers-Young notes she also brings a passion and commitment to the arts, “I have a deep love of and commitment to all forms of art – music, theatre, dance, film, visual – and its diversity of performance styles from the classical to the cutting edge."
She earned a BS in sociology, MS in dance and a PhD in theatre from the University of Oregon and continued to study various western and Asian physical disciplines, including Laban, mask, meditation, yoga, t’ai chi, wu chi and chi gong. Before entering academic life, she was a dancer, choreographer and director who performed extensively in the Pacific Northwest and at Mumokan Theatre in Kyoto, Japan, and University Theatre in Manchester, England.
York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 200,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 11 faculties and 24 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.
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Alex Bilyk
Director, Media Relations
York University
(416) 736- 5603
