The Arts of Building Peace (COEX 250)
This course, taught by Cynthia Cohen, examines the theory and practice of promoting coexistence and reconciliation through cultural work and the arts. Participants explore how a variety of cultural and artistic forms and processes such as music, drama, visual arts, memorials, rituals, literature, and storytelling can 1) enhance capacities required for building trust; 2) invite former adversaries to understand and empathize with each other's suffering; 3) support people to confront painful and contested history; and 4) extend the impact of transformations accomplished in small groups to larger segments of society. Participants read and critique theories linking the arts to personal transformation and social change, as well as study local and global case studies. In addition, they engage in experiential activities designed to underscore the transformative potential of the arts and to ensure understandings that cannot be achieved on the cognitive level alone. Click here to view the syllabus. See an example of a student project, "Parallel Narratives" by Naomi Safran-Hon.
On-Campus Internship in the Community, Arts and Social Transformation (Spring 2007)
How do the arts really strengthen communities? How can cultural productions contribute to coexistence? What is it like to work in the fields of community arts and community cultural development? How can we develop the capacities required of leaders in the movement linking the arts with social transformation?
Brandeis undergraduate and graduate students are invited to explore these questions through an on-campus internship, offered for the first time in the spring of 2007.
During this internship, you will work directly with members of the Brandeis faculty, staff and administration. You will take the lead in:- planning programs and events
- designing and implementing strategies for outreach and audience development
- documenting and assessing programs
- creating internet resources that synthesize learning
Each intern will contribute to the Intercultural Residency Series, the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Arts, and a virtual resource center called Creative Resources for Coexistence and Reconciliation. You will also reflect on your experiences in a variety of formats. We will meet as a group about six times during the semester and we will discuss some readings together, but mostly you will be working -- sometimes independently, sometimes in teams, and sometimes as members of committees -- all around the campus and beyond. At the beginning of the semester, we'll develop individual workplans, balancing your own interests and talents with the needs of these dynamic, state-of-the-art programs taking place right here on the Brandeis campus.
This internship will be led by Cynthia Cohen, Director of the Slifka Program in Intercommunal Coexistence. Undergraduates can register for this internship as PAX 92. Masters students in Cultural Production can participate in this internship as partial fulfillment of the requirements for CP 202b, and should discuss their plans with Professor Auslander. Other graduate students wishing to participate should contact Professor Cohen at cecohen@brandeis.edu or x62133.
Note: This internship does NOT fulfill the Creative Arts requirement.
If you are interested, contact jkburke@brandeis.edu.