Theater of Change: Reimagining Justice – Advanced Field Research and Practicum

This practicum builds on and extends the work done in the January Term Theater of Change course and practicum. Students will continue research and practice on projects related to
reimagining justice, which might include providing the policy and legal research for an artistic production as well as an activism strategy to advance goals related to reducing mass
incarceration, humanizing justice, rethinking safety, and/or dismantling the school to prison pipeline. Students will provide support to these projects to blend artistry, law, policy, and
community engagement, and in this way to produce narratives with powerful impact in policy spaces where change can happen. The course will equip participants as change agents by
enabling them to tell powerful stories and use legal and policy knowledge and skills to amplify impact in venues where laws are made and power is exercised. In the process we will amplify
the power of those directly affected by the criminal legal system through artistry informed by legal and policy research. The workshop will enable participants to craft and enact compelling
stories about justice and injustice in “theaters of change,” which include both formal legal spaces such as the courtroom, the agency, and the legislature, and other spaces for building
effective coalitions and shifting hearts and minds of thought leaders and policy makers, such as the conference, the town hall, and the public square. Students must have taken the Theater
of Change J Term course or its equivalent. Admission is by instructor permission only. Please email Susan Sturm or Leia Squillace with questions or to apply.

Method of Evaluation: Paper, Reports, Policy Papers, Fieldwork