Message from the Dean

Dear Friends, Families, Students, and Colleagues,

The Towson University College of Fine Arts and Communication is grounded by a firm commitment to equitable student success. All of our programming, events and coursework aim to prepare our graduates to lead, change and inspire their communities and chosen professions. We have a strong network of highly successful and generous alumni who regularly support our students through master classes, presentations, mentoring and scholarships programs. COFAC faculty and staff are tireless and dedicated mentors who go above and beyond every day for our students.  

As a way of bringing our diverse college of visual artists, performers, scholars, journalists and filmmakers closer together, each year we choose a COFAC Theme Scholar to inspire and lead the college with research, pedagogy and community projects based on a common theme. This year’s theme is Lighten Up: Humor & Satire and will be led by Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts, Mukwae Wabei Siyolwe. Look for upcoming podcasts, book groups, research and discussion with Professor Siyolwe, her guests and students.

This academic year marks the beginning of the 2^nd COFAC CoLab an incubator for ideas, projects and interdisciplinary collaboration. For the next three years, this program will center around Invisible Architectures, curated by Co-directors; Ada Pinkston (Art + Design, Art History, Art Education) and Kalima Young (Electronic Media and Film). These extraordinary artist-activist-teachers will help us explore the topic of Invisible Architectures through numerous entry points and research paradigms. During the 2021-2022 school year, the team will begin with projects and interventions designed to explore various topics in Truth and Reconciliation. In AY 2022-2023, they will begin excavating the Archival Silence which sometimes informs the way art is produced and taught within formal disciplines. The final year (2023-2024) is dedicated to producing scholarship that will create a new, more equitable archive for the University and COFAC as we continue to create an anti-oppressive and anti-racist educational environment. 

Whether you’re a first-time freshman or transfer student new to TU; a returning student; COFAC faculty, staff or a family member, I hope you will find the College of Fine Arts and Communication at Towson University to be a welcoming, affirming and inspiring place to teach, learn and grow. 

Sincerely,

Regina Carlow, Ph.D.

Dean, College of Fine Arts and Communication

---

About Regina Carlow

Regina Carlow received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park. She joins us at Towson University after having served as Interim Dean, Associate Dean, Associate Chair, and Professor of Music for the College of Fine Arts at the University in New Mexico from 2004-2020. She has led numerous university-wide initiatives in assessment, core curriculum revision and essential skills for college and career readiness. She is an active researcher, choral conductor and teacher and authored several books, numerous articles and presentations across a wide spectrum of venues and publications in music and general education.

As an academic, her research and teaching centered around the experiences of immigrant students in the college classroom and their trajectory in higher education. Dean Carlow was the founding artistic director of the UNM Children’s Chorus, a non-auditioned choral program for children in grades K-12. In 2008 she founded the New Mexico Kodály Institute, a summer institute for music teachers that focused on the teaching philosophy of Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodály and the centrality of singing in musical literacy – especially with young children. After 18 years in New Mexico, Dean Carlow is thrilled to be back home in the Mid-Atlantic Region and is honored to lead the extraordinary faculty, staff and students of the Towson University College of Fine Arts and Communication.