Arts & Humanities

The public is invited to attend free, Saturday programs led by University of Colorado Boulder faculty on popular topics as part of the CU on the Weekend series, which begins Sept. 6. With topics ranging from the sweeping stories behind celebrated musical compositions to the micro-level study of bacteria that uniquely forms each person’s microbiome, CU on the Weekend programs are designed to satisfy the community’s curiosity surrounding some of the intriguing research conducted at CU-Boulder.

Ruth Ellen Kocher, professor of English and director of the creative writing program at the University of Colorado Boulder, has won a prestigious PEN Literary Award. Kocher was a co-winner of the PEN Open Book Award for her book of poems titled domina Un/blued. The award recognizes an exceptional book-length work of literature by an author of color. Also winning the award was Nina McConigley for Cowboys and East Indians .

Playing in schoolyards that feature natural habitats and trees and not just asphalt and recreation equipment reduces children’s stress and inattention, according to a University of Colorado Boulder study.

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.