Arts in Social Change

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Music, theater, and visual art have been a part of social change movements as far back as we have historical records. Fliers are created both to inform and inspire. Plays challenge the status quo. Films offer us inspiration, or new models of living. Street theater mocks the powerful, inspires the oppressed, and gives shape to resistance. Novels warn us of threats, imagine new worlds, and celebrate forgotten ancestors. Music provides the rhythm of resistance, inspires, and unites. This course will examine these phenomena, starting primarily in the 20th century and attempt to understand some of the most powerful ways that the arts contribute to movements for change. We will look mostly at film, novels, and music, but will also discuss a number of other genres. Students will both experience art and discuss it, both verbally and in writing. The culminating assignment for the course will be to produce something of your own - in any genre - that can be used to contribute to a movement for peace and justice.