Art has often been a catalyst for change in our society. Often, artists and performers are working at the front lines of movements that increase inclusion, give voice to new and differing perspectives, and create space for conversation and compassion.  

The need for such work has only intensified in recent years as we are becoming increasingly aware of injustices across the community, the nation, and the globe.  

The University of Iowa’s Certificate in Social Justice and the Performing Arts offers undergraduate students a framework to address these demands, combining study of the performing arts with courses in race and ethnicity; gender, women’s, and sexuality studies; global and transnational studies; and the environment and ecological justice. Students have the opportunity to learn methods and practices for creating socially engaged and community-based creative projects.  

“Students in the Theatre Arts were advocating for more productions centering the voices of BIPOC and LGBTQIA people,” says Loyce Arthur, an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre Arts who coordinates the certificate. She collaborated with fellow faculty in Theatre Arts, the Department of Dance, School of Music, and Department of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies to design the certificate, which encourages cross-disciplinary studies and fosters the development of performing arts projects focused on advancing social justice. 

 “We wanted to create a formal process to help students align their studies more closely with their own interests,” Arthur explains. “We wanted a way to meet their desire to create impactful work for their communities and peers.” 

The certificate asks students to also examine who their creative work will impact, who can benefit, and how they can make ethical choices as they develop, collaborate, and create their capstone projects.  

“The certificate has really given me a wider scope,” says Jason Vernon, a second-year student in Theatre Arts who is currently pursuing the certificate. “A performance is so much more than the performance itself; it’s everything happening around the actual art piece. Pursuing the certificate has made me more aware of my own responsibility as an artist to take action towards inclusion.” 

Vernon came to the University of Iowa with a love for theatre and dance that had flourished through middle and high school. “I began to feel that just being a performer wasn’t doing enough to make a change,” Vernon explains, reflecting on how his pursuit of social justice and activism has grown in tandem with his love of the arts.  

In his first semester at the University of Iowa, Jason took a class in the Department of Dance called “Performing Power, Performing Protest,” one of many classes that fit into the certificate’s malleable structure that explores how performance can challenge power structures, address social equity, and influence social change. 

“I hadn’t even heard of the certificate when I signed up,” Jason admits. He was simply following his interests—and that’s exactly how the certificate is designed to work. 

With a multitude of classes offered across disciplines, students can mold the certificate to fit their individual interests and schedules and develop their own project. Jason, for example, is currently doing research in disability studies and relating that to theatre practices.  

“My goal is to create a radically accessible piece of theatre,” he explains about the direction of his capstone project, “so I’m in the process of reaching out to the disability community in town and on campus.”  

Through close mentorship with faculty and collaboration with students from other disciplines, the Certificate in Social Justice and the Performing Arts is meant to help students access and hone human-centered skills in empathy, compassion, and social responsibility, and gain a sense of belonging, equity, and inclusion as they approach their work and partner with others. 

“For me,” Vernon says, “the certificate is about finding the people who are already doing this social justice work and learning from them. It’s about being part of the conversation. That way, when I leave Iowa City, I have the resources to create social justice performances in new places.”