“Leadership as Art: Knowledge, Critique, Creativity, Intuition, and Magic Within the Matrix of Power”

THE DEANS’ SERIES PRESENTS:

College of Arts & Humanities
Dean Vida Samiian & Associate Dean José Díaz

Date: Thursday, September 17, 2009
Time: 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm
Place: HML, Auditorium 2206

“Leadership as Art: Knowledge, Critique, Creativity, Intuition, and Magic Within the Matrix of Power”

Reflections from the “Dark Side”: Conversations about Leadership in the Academy. Join us for dialogue and lively conversation on leadership and professional development!

Vida Samiian, Ph.D.
Vida Samiian is Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities and Professor of Linguistics. She joined Fresno State in 1983 after receiving her Ph.D. in Linguistics from UCLA, specializing in Syntax and Iranian Languages. Her research has focused on the structure of non-verbal phrasal categories in Persian, and more recently on impersonal verbs in Iranian languages.

Born and raised in Iran, Dr. Samiian, taught at Tehran's Free University in 1979-80, and has been an activist for women's rights and civil rights in Iran and the United States.

She is co-organizer of the International Iranian Linguistics Conference, which is held in Europe every two years. She has been the recipient of four grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, including a special initiative titled Fresno Conversations on Pluralism and Identity in 1995.

She currently serves as PI for a Title VI grant from the US Department of Education to launch a Middle East Studies program at Fresno State.

José A. Díaz, Ph.D.
Prior to joining the Music Faculty in 1982, José A. Díaz was actively engaged as a performing musician with orchestras and chamber ensembles in Mexico and across the state of Texas. Since coming to Fresno he continues to contribute to the professional musical and cultural life of the central San Joaquin Valley as performer, adjudicator, clinician, and guest speaker for various musical organizations. Since 1986 he has held the Honorable Edward and Anita Shanahan Principal Endowed Principal Oboe Chair with the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra, one of California’s most prominent regional orchestras, and performs regularly with the Fresno-based Orpheus Chamber Ensemble and the California Wind Quintet.

Dr. Díaz unpublished dissertation “A Pedagogical Study for Oboe of Four Orchestral Works by Maurice Ravel” has made its way into oboe studios throughout the world. He holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Oboe Performance from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Díaz currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Fresno Coalition for Art, Science, and History, the Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Education Subcommittee, the Youth Orchestras of Fresno, and is a Site-Evaluator for the Accreditation Commission of the National Association of Schools of Music. He was appointed Associate Dean for the College of Arts and Humanities in 2004. José’s many responsibilities as Associate Dean include development and cultivation of collaborative educational programs with artistic and cultural organizations in the Central San Joaquin Valley.

Light refreshments will be served.

Sponsored by the Office of the Provost