Peacebuilding and the Arts

Celebration of the 2018 issue of Ebony Axis. This community journal featured the creative work of self-identifying Black women in the Brandeis community.

Sponsored by Brandeis Pluralism Alliance, CAST Minor, AAS Department, and PARC

With Elizabeth Emma Ferry and Stephen Ferry

A brother-and-sister team, Stephen and Elizabeth Ferry have produced "La Batea," a book exploring the varied lives of small-scale gold miners in Colombia — a group generally thought of as criminals, polluters or abject near-slaves. "La Batea" shows the many histories and contexts of small-scale gold mining that includes violence and exploitation but also long-lived, self-determining anchored communities. Many of the miners we document have been in conflict with transnational gold mining companies that seek to remove them to make room for open-pit projects. The graininess of Stephen's film, along with the material and construction of the book, work to create a marked sense of texture. In their writing, Elizabeth and Stephen explore different observational genres of documentation, ethnography and poetry. With this emphasis on tactile experience and careful attention, "La Batea" bends the traditional genres of documentary photography and anthropological writing.

Sponsored by the Anthropology Department, the Latin American and Latin Studies Program, and Creativity, Arts, and Social Transformation Program.

IMPACT: Imagining Together | Platform for Arts, Culture and Conflict Transformation
Designing a university-based infrastructure for the field

In partnership with the University of Cyprus

Theory, practice and innovation in community-oriented theatre and performance in the Eastern Mediterranean

The Summer School is international and designed for undergraduate students from the Humanities, Social Sciences and other disciplines, as well as practicing artists and community workers, interested in attaining knowledge and tools in theatre and performance, as they relate to community. It was hosted by the Department of English Studies of the University of Cyprus in Nicosia (Cyprus), in partnership with Brandeis University's Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts, USA.

There were three pillars to the program: morning lectures, covering theory and framing the discussion of theatre in (post)conflict communities, afternoon workshops, providing hands-on experience of three methodologies practiced by groups and individuals in the Cyprus, the Eastern Mediterranean and globally, and the Incubation process, through which the TPCC participants will creatively engage with the material and people of the summer school in order to produce their own creative work. This work was showcased and TPCC participants could use it in their portfolios. There were also parallel activities, such as discussions, book presentations and play attendance.

The interdisciplinary minor in Creativity, the Arts, and Social Transformation (CAST) held its annual Mini-Festival of the Arts and Social Justice. Our mini-festival was an interdisciplinary array of art and social change, featuring collaborations from CAST students working in the creative arts, humanities, and social sciences.

The festival is dedicated to the belief that "the art of an era is a reflection of the society in which it is produced, and through creative endeavors the thoughts and expression which characterize each generation are revealed and transformed." In this spirit, CAST hosted installations and performances focusing on art and social change.

Without photographs, drawings or well-written description, science can be difficult for a general audience to fully understand. Artists and writers can't explore the world's particularities without understanding them. Information and inspiration feed one another. Join us for a panel discussion of how art, science, and activism can converge. Panelists include a whale biologist trained in scientific illustration, the editor of an anthology of Eco-Justice poems, a naturalist who lectures on expedition ships, and a citizen science advocate.

Melissa Tuckey is a co-founder of "Split This Rock," where she currently serves as eco-justice poetry project coordinator, and editor of "Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology" (U. Georgia, 2018).

Scott Landry is the director of Marine Animal Entanglement Response at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He has worked as a marine biologist and scientific illustrator over the last two decades, concentrating on the conservation of whales and sea turtles. 

Elizabeth Bradfield, a poet and associate professor in the Brandeis Creative Writing program, works as a naturalist and marine educator on expedition ships around the world. Her poems and essays engaging science have been published in The New Yorker, Orion Magazine and elsewhere.

Colleen Hitchcock is an assistant pProfessor of ecology in the Biology and Environmental Studies program and an active participant and promoter of a diversity of citizen science research. She is a member of the 2018 City Nature Challenge: Boston Area steering committee which seeks to document and understand urban biodiversity through active collaboration between the public, educators, and scientists.

This event was co-sponsored by the Creative Writing Program and the Creativity, the Arts, and Social Transformation (CAST) Program.

Kenyan conflict transformation expert, theater artist and traditional storyteller

Dr. Babu Ayindo engaged members of the Brandeis community in activities and conversations on questions surrounding decolonization and arts-based peacebuilding. In addition to sessions with members of the CAST advisory committee and students, he will lead sessions open to the Brandeis community.

A generous gift from the Max and Sunny Howard Memorial Fund supported Babu's residency at Brandeis.

Read about the full series of events and view a video recording.

The program staff of the minor in Creativity, the Arts and Social Transformation (CAST) announced the opening of the new CAST Resource Room, in conjunction with the 20th anniversary celebration of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, where the resource room located. The first space of its kind for CAST and Creative Writing students on campus, the Resource Room will be a place to meet and collaborate on projects or work individually. Designed and implemented by CAST senior Marcelo Brociner, the Resource Room is filled with comfortable chairs, a computer and desk, and a bookshelf of CAST-related books, movies, and other materials for use and inspiration. It is a welcoming, calming space that offers students a place other than the library to get work done and tap into their creativity. Helping design the space, and serving as mentors, have been Elizabeth Bradfield, Associate Professor of the Practice of English and Co-Director of the Creative Writing Program, and Kristin Parker, Deputy Director of the Rose Art Museum. Both are also members of the CAST Advisory Committee.

The Resource Room is located in Room 327 in the Ethics Center, which is on the third floor of the Abraham Shapiro Academic Complex (ASAC, the building right across from the Heller School and next to the Mandel Humanities Center).