Dear Colleagues:
I am delighted to announce the appointment of Lionel Popkin as dean of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture (UCLA Arts), effective May 1, 2026.
A member of the UCLA Arts faculty since 2006, Popkin has served as the school’s interim dean since February 2024. Previously, he was chair of the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance from 2015 to 2018 and the school’s associate dean for academic affairs (2021–24); equity advisor (2021–22); and a member of the UCLA Arts Anti-racism, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Commission (2020–21). He currently serves as chair of the UCLA Chancellor’s Council on the Arts; has served on a variety of other campuswide committees, including the Undergraduate Council (2013–15) and Council on Research (chair, 2010–12); and he has advocated for the arts with other groups including the Council on Academic Personnel and various campus finance committees. Prior to his appointment at UCLA, he served on the faculty of Bates College, London’s Laban Centre, Sarah Lawrence College, Temple University and the University of Maryland.
As interim dean, Popkin has provided steadfast, principled leadership for UCLA Arts during a challenging period. Over the past two years, he moved with purpose on several of the school’s most pressing priorities: growing student scholarship endowment and faculty research support; strengthening and reinvigorating the UCLA Arts board; piloting a program for cross-departmental co-teaching and collaboration; and advancing long-deferred capital planning — all while never losing sight of the human dimensions of the role. His instinct to gather the school’s community in difficult moments, and to make the dean’s office itself a space for the display of student work, speaks to a leader who understands that institutional strength and community well-being are inseparable. He brings to this appointment not only momentum, but a deep commitment to transparency, ethical leadership, and the belief that the arts and education are among the most powerful forces for change in the world.
Popkin is a dancer and choreographer whose artistic practice engages people, objects and media to explore hybridity, archival practices and the complexities of representing the South Asian diaspora in North America. His work has been presented on four continents at venues such as Danspace Project in New York; the Getty Center and the Getty Villa in Los Angeles; The Place Theatre in London; the Guangdong Modern Dance Festival in Guangzhou, China; and the São Carlos Dance Film Festival in Brazil. The New Yorker described his work as “by turns comical, creepy and uncanny,” highlighting his use of objects and projections to frame and ground his dances in imagery that is relatable, sly and humorous. Notable grants include the National Performance Network’s Creation Fund, the National Dance Project Touring Subsidy and support from the Mellon Foundation. His project Reorient the Orient premiered in March 2024 at REDCAT in Los Angeles and is an innovative durational installation/performance. As a performer, Popkin spent four years with the Trisha Brown Dance Company, performing featured roles on renowned stages worldwide, including Le Palais Garnier (the Paris Opera House), London’s Barbican Centre, New York’s Lincoln Center and UCLA’s Royce Hall.
Popkin’s written work includes the articles “On the Edges of Diaspora: Second-Generational Mixed Thoughts,” in the Oxford University Press Handbook on Indian Dance (2025), “Orienting Myself: Finding My Way Through Ruth St. Denis’ Archive,” published in Choreographic Practices (2015); and “Uday Shan-Kar and Me: Stories of Self-Orientalization, Hyphenization, and Diasporic Declarations,” published in a special issue of the journal Arts in 2023 on South Asian Diasporic Dance, for which he served as guest editor. His manuscript, Reorienting Performance: Artmaking in the South Asian Diaspora, will appear in 2027 with Intellect Press. He is a certified teacher of Skinner Releasing Technique and a resident artist at the 18th Street Arts Center.
I want to thank the search/advisory committee members for assembling an outstanding pool of candidates for this position and for their roles in recruiting Dean Popkin:
- Christina A. Christie (chair) – Wasserman Dean of the School of Education and Information Studies and professor of education
- Steve F. Anderson – professor of film, television & digital media and of design | media arts; associate dean, academic affairs, School of the Arts and Architecture
- Mariana Ibañez – associate professor and chair, Department of Architecture & Urban Design
- Victoria Marks – professor of world arts and cultures/dance; chair, disability studies major and minor
- Casey Reas – professor of design | media arts
- Zoë Ryan – director, Hammer Museum at UCLA
- Rodrigo Valenzuela – associate professor of art; Faculty Executive Committee chair, School of the Arts and Architecture
Given his demonstrated leadership and deep commitment to UCLA, Chancellor Frenk and I believe Lionel is very well positioned to lead the School of the Arts and Architecture at this critical juncture, and are confident that he will continue to help the school — and more broadly the arts at UCLA — reach new heights. Please join us in congratulating Lionel as he takes on the role of permanent dean.
Sincerely,
Darnell Hunt
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost