UCLA professor Lionel Popkin has accepted the position of associate dean of academic affairs for the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. Popkin, a choreographer and performer who has served on the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance faculty since 2006, succeeds Victoria Marks, whose excellent leadership has guided academic affairs for the school for the past four years.
Popkin brings a wealth of experience at the departmental and schoolwide level. He served as chair of the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance from 2015 to 2018. In the past year, he has played an important role as a member of the school’s Anti-racism, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Commission, addressing issues that are important to him personally and that are central to his practice. Popkin was born and raised in Indiana to an Indian mother and a Jewish father. His work questions how bodies, objects and media are allowed to exist in time and space. His research and teaching focus on choreography, improvisation, hybridity, multidisciplinarity, and cultural and artistic lineage.