Topic: The Artist as Activist and Activist as Artist

Catalog description

Artists and activists often act as cultural dissidents, raising urgent issues and engaging in civic provocation that asks society to engage in broader conversations about transformation and justice. This course explores the intersections of art and activism and invites students to bring a theoretical PJS lens to consider art as a relevant peacebuilding framework. Art and activism may help us to imagine more just, equitable, and humane ways of being together while also acting as a form of confrontation, forcing us to consider what we may choose to ignore. The arts challenge us by exposing injustice but may also heal us by addressing intergenerational trauma or reconnecting polarized communities through the importance of storytelling.