Cynthia Oliver was promoted to full professor of dance at the University of Illinois. She will also teach African American studies and gender and women’s studies classes.
Dr. Oliver is the author of Queen of the Virgins: Pageantry and Black Womanhood in the Caribbean (University Press of Mississippi, 2009). She holds a Ph.D. in performance studies from New York University.
Joe Morton was appointed to the Denzel Washington Endowed Chair for Theater for 2012 at Fordham University in The Bronx, New York. The chair was established by a $2 million donation from Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington in 2011. The first holder of the chair was Phylicia Rashad.
This semester, Morton will be teaching a course entitled “Creating a Character.”
Morton has appeared in films such as The Brother From Another Planet, Speed, Of Mice and Men, and Terminator 2. In 1974, he received a Tony nomination for his role in Raisin on Broadway.