Every year, the University of Arizona selects the most distinguished graduate students from around the world to be a part of the prestigious University Fellows program. Two students of the arts have joined the 2021-2022 cohort: artist and educator Anupam Singh and clarinetist Gloria Ines Orozco Dorado.
The University Fellows program is the flagship initiative of the University’s Graduate Center that launched in 2014. The goal of the program is to prepare the most esteemed graduate students pursuing a doctoral or master’s degree to be the next generation of innovative leaders.
Anupam Singh
Singh is a PhD student studying Art History and Education with a focus on Art and Visual Culture Education at the School of Art. He received a Bachelor of Visual Arts in printmaking from Tabindra Bharati University and MFA degrees in printmaking from the Maharaja Sayajirae University of Baroda and in Art + Social Practice from Portland State University.
Singh’s interest in pursuing his PhD stems from a 20-year history of making art and teaching. Not only has he been an artist and educator for many years, but he is also the founder of an arts-based non-profit in India called the Council for Arts and Social Practice.
With an interdisciplinary approach to artmaking, Singh hopes to continue making and teaching social engaged art that broadens people’s understanding of how art can relate to various social contexts and develop their critical thinking of hegemony in the art world. He is currently researching the connection between mutualism and socially engaged art. He is also studying topics such as postcolonialism, trans culturalism, and the decolonization of art history and education.
Gloria Ines Orozco Dorado
Dorado is pursuing a DMA degree with a focus in clarinet performance at the Fred Fox School of Music. She received a bachelor’s degree in clarinet performance from the Universidad del Cauca and a master’s degree in Applied Pedagogy from Northeastern Illinois University and two additional master’s degrees in Clarinet Performance and Music Theory and Composition from Southern Illinois University.
Dorado’s main goal in her educational pursuit is to learn more about her culture and others and find opportunities to use her music to positively impact underprivileged communities. This desire stems from her own experiences as a child and recently with Indigenous, Afro-Colombians, and Mestizos in her own country.
Eligible programs within the College of Fine Arts can nominate two applicants for the fellowship. A set of interdisciplinary committees reviews the nominations based on academic excellence, interdisciplinarity, collaboration, mentoring, community engagement, and contribution to diversity and inclusion.
By joining the program, the Fellows receive a financial package, mentoring and community engagement opportunities, professional development programming, and an interdisciplinary cohort to work with. Each member of the cohort benefits from programming in topics such as financial literacy, written and oral communication skills, and leadership and diversity. They are also expected to serve as a mentor for either a K-12 student, an honors student, a refugee, immigrant, or undergraduate student from a diversity program.
In addition to the benefits listed above, students are not required to teach or do lab work their first year so that they can focus on their research and pursue opportunities for collaboration and mentorship.
2020-2021
Emmy Tisdel (music)
Mariel Miranda (art)
2019-2020
Raven Moffett (art)
Lucy Mugambi (art)
2018-2019
Jared Baker (dance)
Rebecca Thompson (art, AIAR/GIDP*)
2017-2018
Matthew Crosby (music)
Maria del Mar Navarro (art, AIAR/GIDP)
2016-2017
Khaled Jarrar (art)
Juan Mejia (music)
2015-2016
Misha Burstein (art)
Stephanie Hoeckley (music)
2014-2015
Terrence Pitt-Brooke (music)
Danielle Sheather (dance)
* Applied Intercultural Arts Research / Graduate Interdisciplinary Program
>> Emmy Tisdel, Mariel Miranda selected for University Fellows cohort