Divisional Dean of the Arts
As divisional dean, acting on authority delegated by the Dean of Arts and Sciences, Gabriel Solis supervises the schools, departments, centers, and other units and programs administratively located in the College’s Arts Division. He broadly supports those units in their teaching, research, and service, and represents them with respect to personnel matters such as faculty hiring, promotion, retention, merit determination, and the awarding of sabbaticals.
Solis belongs to the College of Arts & Sciences’ executive leadership team and, guided by the Dean, engages in collaborative decision-making and financial and strategic planning on behalf of the College. He serves on the Board of Deans and Chancellors for the UW tri-campus system and represents the Arts Division in a range of University and community initiatives. In all his work, he strives to advance the equity, justice, and inclusion mission of the College and the University.
A professor of music, Solis is an ethnomusicologist and music historian whose work focuses on music, memory, and racialization in the 20th and 21st centuries. He came to the University of Washington in 2022 from the University of Illinois, where he had been a professor of music for 20 years, with affiliate appointments in African American Studies, American Indian Studies, and Anthropology. In previous administrative appointments he has striven to develop research capacity in the arts with a focus on intersections between scholarship and practice, and with a core commitment to building more equitable and inclusive approaches to the arts in higher education.
Solis’s research in jazz, popular music, and contemporary Indigenous music in Australia and Melanesia has been supported by fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and Mellon Foundation.
Visit the Arts Divisional Overview to learn more about the College of Arts & Sciences’ Arts Division and ArtsUW for the latest news, events, and initiatives related to the arts on campus.