Faculty members are central to the School’s success as dedicated educators, groundbreaking researchers, and vital mentors to the next generation. We are committed to recruiting top academics with diverse backgrounds who are dedicated to scholarship, teaching, and service that embraces and engages the full measure of the diversity of our society. As part of Impact 2030, we are making substantial new efforts to support faculty doing outstanding work by committing significant resources over the next decade to a new faculty fellowship program. These new fellowships provide flexible funding over five years to further a faculty member’s research and scholarship.
Chris Walker, Professor in the Dance Department, is one of nine recently awarded fellows. Walker is a multi-hyphenate contemporary dance and performance artist. Rooted in “Resistance Aesthetics,” Walker’s work draws upon the danced rituals, mas traditions, and embodied performance history of the African diaspora. The founding artistic director of OMAI/First Wave, Walker developed the First Wave Process. His research intersects dance choreography for the concert stage with collaborations with visual and performance artists for museum, alternate spaces, professional theatre, and video/film.