Arts and Social Justice

The Social Justice Centre is planning to develop a new line of activity focused on art and social justice.

The general objective of the Social Justice Centre is to foster and energize interdisciplinary research on social justice at Concordia.

Regarding the new initiative on art and social justice, we would like to facilitate exploration of two sets of issues.

2 axis of research

1. Arts for Social Justice

The first concerns arts for social justice. We want to understand how the work of artists might foster social justice along its various axes—i.e., economic, cultural, political, gender, and environmental. For example, how might music, theatre, literature, film, dance, painting, and other arts help thematize and understand injustices, and how might engaging the work of artists help their public develop ideas, abilities, and dispositions to move beyond those injustices?

2. Social Justice for Arts

The second theme concerns social justice for arts. We want to identify ways to empower artists so that they can carry out their work in secure and dynamic ways. For example, what liberties should artists enjoy and how are they to be protected? What material support can be generated for them to be able to devote themselves to artistic work without having to face economic penury? How can this support be obtained without compromising artists’ autonomy to shape how they work?

Projects

To explore these issues, we envision, e.g., (i) the creation of an ongoing, interdisciplinary group of professors and students at Concordia interested in exploring the two thematic clusters mentioned; (ii) the organization of symposia and workshops to help these members of Concordia to develop and share diverse lines of collaborative research; and (iii) the interaction between Concordia scholars and artists and other scholars, artists, activists, and policy-makers outside Concordia.

It is expected that participants in these activities will develop a variety of ideas and projects. The spirit of the initiative involves open-minded dialogue and respect for the diverse views that emerge.

Interested? Join our first meeting!

The first step will be a meeting on September 12 (3-5 pm) at SHIFT to launch the initiative and identify plans of action. It will involve scholars interested in the arts and social justice across various departments at Concordia.