Creative activism in the university: A case study of curricular design and implementation

This article discusses developing and implementing a university creative activism course. The course, Creativity in the Community, involves students working with a community partner to generate original performance work on a social justice issue. It aims to facilitate active citizenship and drive social change, as well as to effect change in participants. The critical reflection offered in this article covers course design and implementation, and illustrates pedagogical processes with a case study project that students completed in 2015, discussing hurdles faced and learning techniques used. The student-led project combined theatre, multimedia and creative writing to confront rape culture both in society and on the participants' own university campus. The article is divided into three sections: origination (the genesis and ideas behind the course), production (the steps and challenges in making the creative work) and reception (what resulted). Throughout, the article particularly tries to record lessons learned by the educator about using creative activism as a pedagogical tool.