Performing Arts and Social Change (Minor)

The minor in Performing Arts and Social Change employs the restorative practices of theater and dance to foster community-engaged learning and to affect social change. Students practice creativity, critical reflection, and empathy that extends well beyond the theater and into the wider community.

This program fosters community-engaged learning and bridges the study of literature with the restorative practices of performing arts. Students will work with various community partners–performing arts organizations that focus upon the fight for equity and justice for marginalized communities. Students explore issues of social justice, especially at the intersection of race, class, disability, sexuality, and gender, in plays, works of choreography, and relevant literary texts.  

Under the guidance and mentorship of literary scholars, social justice advocates, artists, and technicians in professional theater, students wed theory to practice in specialized coursework. The minor culminates in a capstone experience featuring a professional internship with an approved community partner. The internship is enhanced by a faculty-led community of practice where students critically reflect on their experiences and develop a final project suited to their professional and academic goals. Signature work could be scholarly, creative, digital, or performance-based.

Program Learning Outcomes

Students will:

1. Reflect critically on their identity as a person, a professional, and a community member.
2. Analyze the relationship between agency and structures that produce inequity in diverse communities.
3. Act creatively and collaboratively to learn within diverse community contexts.
4. Co-create artistic and restorative practices through performance that promote equity and enhance well-being.

Required Courses:

CASC 3400	Theory and Practice for Community Action and Social Change	4.00 units
ENGL 3016	Shakespeare for Social Justice	4.00 units

Electives:

Select four units from the following. Additional courses may meet requirements with Department approval.

ART 3010	Community Engaged Art:Principles & Prac.	3.00 units
ENGL 2305/ENGL 3412	Introduction to Creative Writing	4.00 units
ENGL 3037	Queer Anglophone Literature and Film	4.00 units
ENGL 3300/ENGL 2300	Film Studies	2.00 units
ENGL 3304/ENGL 2304	Drama Studies	2.00 units
ENGL 3308	Writing the Graphic Novel	2.00 units
ENGL 3330	Writing Popular Genres	4.00 units
ENGL 3402	Drama Writing	4.00 units
ENGL 3403/ENGL 3431	Fiction Writing	4.00 units
ENGL 3405	Poetry Writing	4.00 units
ENGL 3409	Autobiographical and Biographical Writing	4.00 units
ENGL 3410	Creative Nonfiction Writing	4.00 units
ENGL 3412/ENGL 2305	Advanced Creative Writing	4.00 units
ENGL 3413	Spoken Word	4.00 units
ENGL 3414	Acting and Stagecraft	4.00 units
ENGL 3440	Advanced Writing Seminar	4.00 units
ENGL 3650	STA: Creative Arts at the Finca	4.00 units
ENGL 3702	Anatomy Theater	4.00 units
HCS 3109/ENGL 3109	Politics of the Body in Motion	4.00 units
HIST 1001	The Making of Today: Contemporary World History	4.00 units
HONO 3202	Just Learning: Books Not Bars	4.00 units
PHIL 3103/HONO 3503	Ethics, Leadership and Meaning	4.00 units
PHIL 3110	Environmental Ethics	4.00 units
PHIL 3121	Education for Democracy	4.00 units
PHIL 3124	Othering and Belonging	4.00 units
PHIL 3220/POL 3220	Gender: Ethics & Politics	4.00 units
PHIL 3520	Self, Community and Ethical Action	4.00 units
POL 3220/PHIL 3220	Gender: Ethics & Politics	4.00 units
PSY 1100	Introduction to Psychology	4.00 units
RLGN 3003	Art and the Sacred	4.00 units
RLGN 3132	Women, Religion and Sexuality	4.00 units
RLGN 3186	Faith-based Social Teachings	4.00 units

Capstone

CASC 4996	Community-Engaged Internship	2.00 units
CASC 4905	Community of Practice and Signature Work	2.00 units

Total Credit Hours: 16