Creativity, the Arts, and Social Transformation Program (CAST)

CAST Chair Dr. Toni Shapiro-Phim was the keynote speaker at the Dancing Ecologies in the Asia-Pacific: Negotiating Identities in a Context of Change and Dispossession conference hosted by the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore on February 19 and 20, 2024. Her presentation was entitled "Cambodian Dancers on Contested or Ravaged Ground." The conference featured talks, films and an activation by dancers, choreographers and filmmakers, and researchers, writers, and scholars in the fields of anthropology, geography, musicology, performance studies, political science, theater, and Asian, Critical Heritage and Indigenous studies.

Renowned artist and human rights activist Claudia Bernardi has been selected as the inaugural Justice Brandeis Practitioner-In-Residence. CAST community members will remember Bernardi from her work with the Introduction to CAST course last year on a mural project and anthology of stories crafted from interviews with individuals in or from more than ten countries about their relationship with water, and about what’s at stake if we don’t address threats to water stemming from the climate crisis, Waters Breathe, Too: An Anthology (mural pictured above). Bernardi will be on the Brandeis campus on October 1, to give a presentation about her work, and will return November 7-10 to work with students on a new mural. 

Claudia Bernardi is an installation artist, painter, and printmaker whose artwork reflects the impact of war and its legacies. Bernardi designs and facilitates collaborative art projects with survivors of political violence, torture, and sexual violence, and with communities forced into exile, as well as university students. Born in Argentina, Bernardi was affected by the military junta (1976-1983) that resulted in 30,000 desaparecidos -- people who were "disappeared.” After the dictatorship ended, she worked with Argentina's Forensic Anthropology Team, mapping remains found in mass graves.

In 2005, Bernardi founded Walls of Hope in a war zone in El Salvador, a community-based art, education, and human rights project that has been replicated in many countries around the world. Bernardi is Emerita Professor at the California College of the Arts.

CAST ended the 2023-24 academic year with a celebration of five graduates: Emily Braun, Samaria Dellorso, Sophia Fedus, Luna Li, and Jolecia Saunderson. The CAST graduation celebration on May 6 included a brunch reception, welcoming remarks by UDRs Meli Jackson and Madison Sirois, a congratulatory speech by CAST alum and former UDR Zoë Rose ’20, and a keynote speech by CAST affiliate Prof. Faith Smith. The Marta F. Kauffman '78 Professor of African and African American Studies and Professor of English, Dr. Smith is also affiliated with Latin American, Caribbean and Latin Studies (LACLS), and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS). Her remarks speak beautifully to the urgency of the moment and the capacity of arts and creativity, and critical thinking about these, to respond. CAST is grateful to be able to share Prof. Smith’s speech here.

An exploration of aspects of humanity’s relationship with particular bodies of water across the globe, this mural was created by students in the Fall 2023 Introduction to Creativity, the Arts and Social Transformation course, under the guidance of renowned Argentinian artist and human rights activist and scholar Claudia Bernardi. Students interviewed individuals in or from more than ten countries about their relationship with water, and about what’s at stake if we don’t address threats to water stemming from the climate crisis.

Read notes about interviewees' stories that inspired the creation of images that appear in the mural.

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