WASHINGTON — Howard University today announced the appointment of Raquel Monroe, Ph.D., as the dean of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts. In this role, she will oversee academic, performance, and research programming for visual arts and design, music, and theater arts. An award-winning academic and cultural leader, she currently serves as a full professor and associate dean of graduate education and academic affairs in the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Fine Arts. Monroe will begin her new role Aug. 4, 2025.

“Dr. Raquel Monroe brings a rare combination of visionary leadership, interdisciplinary collaboration, research, and a deep commitment to the transformative power of the arts,” said Howard University President Ben Vinson III. “Her ability to unite faculty, students, and creative communities across boundaries will further elevate the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts as a national and global leader in artistic excellence, scholarship, and innovation.”

Monroe is a founding board member of the Collegium for African Diaspora Dance and a member of Propelled Animals, a multimedia, interdisciplinary arts collective. Before her work at UT Austin, she was a professor in dance and an administrator at Columbia College in Chicago, where she served as president of the faculty senate and director of academic personnel engaged in antidiscrimination and merit-based belonging initiatives. Her research interests include Black social dance, queer Black feminism, popular culture, and the efficacy of collaboration in driving social change. Her scholarship has been featured in numerous respected journals and anthologies, including Dance Research Journal, Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture, and the Journal of Pan-African Studies. Funding for her creative work in film, performances, installations, and choreography has come from numerous organizations, including the Walder Foundation, National Performance Network, USArtists International, MAP Fund, and the Studio for Creative Inquiry.

“I am thrilled to work with colleagues to expand on the legacy of creative and intellectual excellence in the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University.” said Monroe.

Monroe received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Herberger Institute for Design at Arizona State University, the Mid-Career Award and Trailblazer Award from the Dance Studies Association, and the Excellence in Teaching Award from Columbia College in Chicago. She earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in dance and theatre and a Master of Arts degree in communication from Arizona State University and a doctorate in culture and performance from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Howard’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts carries forward Howard’s extraordinary leadership in the visual, musical, and performing arts and related pedagogy, history, and research. Howard’s graduates in these areas are trailblazers who have influenced multiple generations across the world, including Golden Globe winner Chadwick A. Boseman (B.F.A. ’00, D.H.L. ’18) Grammy Award winners Jessye Norman (B.Mus. ’67, D.Mus. ’82), and Roberta Flack (B.M.E. ’58, D.Mus. ’75), NAACP Image Award winners Taraji P. Henson (B.F.A. ’95, D.H.L. ’22) and Anthony Anderson (B.F.A. ’22), two-time Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad (B.F.A ’70, D.H.L. ’09), and three-time Emmy Award winner and Kennedy Center honoree Debbie Allen (B.F.A ’72, D.H.L. ’93), among many others.

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