Courses
Photo Credit: Toni Shapiro-Phim
Courses for the Creativity, the Arts, and Social Transformation (CAST) minor are from the creative arts, humanities and social sciences.
For complete information on CAST courses, see the Online University Bulletin and the Fall 2025 Schedule. Instructors, please see the guidelines on cross-listing courses and developing core courses with CAST.
Fall 2025 CAST Offerings
Toni Shapiro-Phim | T 2:20 PM–5:10 PM
How can music, theater, dance and visual and other arts, and forms of cultural expression contribute to community building, coexistence, and nonviolent social change? Students explore these questions through interviews, case studies, and projects. Usually offered every year.
William Chalmus | F 2:20-5:10 PM
Presents, analyzes, and discusses art that provokes controversies, discomfort, and other strong responses. This class will focus on a broad range of artistic expressions, including visual art, theater, film, music, and literature with Brandeis faculty as well as visiting artists. Final project consists of students finding, articulating, and advocating for provocative art from multiple perspectives. Note: Students are responsible for attendance and assignments during the shopping period and must be present in those classes to be enrolled off the waitlist.
Usually offered every semester.
Core Electives
Elizabeth Bradfield | W 2:30 PM–5:20 PM
Offered exclusively on a credit/no credit basis. This course fulfills a workshop requirement for the Creative Writing major and minor.
Muna Güvenç | M,W 4:05 PM–5:25 PM
Employs housing as a lens to interrogate space and society, state and market, power and change, in relation with urban inequality and social justice. It trains students to become participants in the global debates about housing. In doing so, it teaches students about dominant paradigms of urban development and welfare and situates such paradigms in the 20th century history of capitalism. It will explicitly adopt a comparative and transnational urban approach to housing and social justice, showing how a globalized perspective provides important insights into local shelter struggles and debates. Usually offered every second year.
Fernando Rosenberg | M,W 2:30 PM–3:50 PM
Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Explores the role of various creative arts (creative writing, visual arts, music, film, performance) in their role as fostering political change in Latin America. We will examine key eras of 20th and 21st century cultural production in relation to shifting mass-media landscapes, from the revolutionary impetus of the early 20th century avant-gardes in literature and visual arts, the Mexican Revolution, popular music in the 1940s, documentary film and music, and the anti-establishment movements of the 1960s-1970s guerrillas, artistic resistance to the dictatorship, to the street art accompanying human rights, and grass roots identity movements of the 2000s. Usually offered every second year.
Bradford Garvey | T,F 11:10 AM–12:30 PM
Open to all students. Required of all Cultural Studies track majors.
What are we listening to? Applies engaged listening skills and critical analysis for a deeper appreciation of (non-Western) music as a cultural expression. Focuses on particular traditions as well as social context, impact of globalization, cultural production, cultural rights, etc. Usually offered every year.
Ilana Szobel| T,Th 2:20 PM–3:40 PM
Explores the effects of sexualized violence in society. While exploring representations of gender-based sexual violence in documentaries and features, stand-up comedy, memoirs, poetry, and visual art, this course will offer a critical discussion on Rape Culture in the 21st century, with particular attention to the intersections of gender, race, sexuality, class, and disability in the construction of sexual violence. Usually offered every second year.
Jennifer Cleary | T,F 11:10 AM–12:30 PM
Explores the individual discovery in human creativity and how this journey impacts the quality and inclusivity of teaching and learning both inside and outside of educational spaces. Students will dig into their own educational experiences and their relationship to creativity in this creativity-engaged space. Using the theoretical stages of creativity, students read research, reflect on their own experiences, try new creative endeavors, and engage in creative collaboration with others with the lens towards inspiring and supporting learning. Students are asked in the course to expand their own creative reach and risk-taking capabilities. Usually offered every second year.