Emory University’s Arts and Social Justice Program (ASJ) celebrates its fifth anniversary, a milestone in its efforts to integrate art, education and collective action in support of social justice. This semester, ASJ welcomes a new cohort of three Atlanta-based artists and launches a first-of-its-kind collaboration with Spelman College, engaging local sound artist Kacie (Willis) Luaders to collaborate with two classes — one at Emory and one at Spelman — in a cross-campus, multi-disciplinary exchange.
Luaders, a 2022 ASJ artist fellow, is joined by two new fellows, Jasmine Nicole Williams and Umi IMAN. Additionally, choreographer T. Lang, a 2022 ASJ artist fellow, returns as the inaugural ASJ faculty fellow from Spelman College where she is an associate professor of dance.
Since its inception, the ASJ Program has explored and empowered the intersection of art, social justice and community engagement. Each artist fellow is paired with a faculty member, with whom they work to integrate artmaking into the content of an existing course, allowing students to work on a creative project that reflects on the social inequities explored in the class. In addition to Lang, this year’s cohort includes faculty from Emory College of Arts and Sciences and Emory School of Medicine.
ASJ fellows are drawn to the program’s ability to connect students to communities and engage in praxis.
“ASJ empowered me and my students to bring our full imaginations to class, translating our ‘what ifs’ into meaningful, community-driven action,” says 2023 artist fellow Bird Harris. “Reimagining is the only way out of our overlapping contemporary crises, and the ASJ program is an example of how institutions can materially invest in students, artists and scholars to do just that. I’m so grateful to have been a part of this program that supports creatively and collectively dreaming towards justice.”
“As we commemorate five years, we affirm our commitment to fostering dialogue, understanding and action,” says ASJ co-director Carlton Mackey. “In a world that is still finding ways to heal from the fractures of division and build bridges across differences, the Arts and Social Justice Program continues to play a vital role in fostering deep academic learning and real-world change and demonstrating that the intersection of art and education offers a powerful reflection of society and a powerful catalyst to transform it.”
The Arts and Social Justice Program is supported by Emory College of Arts and Sciences, Emory Arts, Emory University Center for Ethics, Emory University Office of the Provost, Nat Robertson Fund in Science and Society, Southwest Airlines and Emory Libraries. ASJ community partners also include Spelman College and Midtown Arts Alliance.
Members of the public can experience the results of the latest collaborations at the annual showcase, taking place at the end of the fall semester. The event, when scheduled, will be free and open to the public.
Courses and faculty/artist pairings
Culture, Arts and Social Movements
Lydia Fort, assistant professor in theater studies, with Jasmine Nicole Williams, printmaker and muralist
GLOBE Track, Fall 2024
Anna Yaffee, associate professor of emergency medicine, and Jay Shah, pediatric and interventional radiologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, with Umi IMAN, dancer and Indigenous arts curator
Live Electronic Music (Emory College) and Improvisation II: Movement Invention (Spelman College)
Adam Mirza, assistant professor in composition at Emory University, and T. Lang, associate professor and inaugural department chair of dance performance and choreography at Spelman College, with Kacie Luaders, sound designer and podcaster
About the Arts and Social Justice Program
Amid a groundswell of national attention to racial and social injustice in the summer of 2020, Emory professors and students joined with Atlanta artists the fall semester of that year to explore how creative thinking and artistic expression can inspire change.
A partnership between Emory Arts of Emory College of Arts and Sciences and the Ethics and the Arts program of the Emory University Center for Ethics, the Arts and Social Justice (ASJ) program was envisioned as an opportunity for faculty members to work alongside partnered ASJ Fellows to embed creative projects that reflect on social inequities into existing courses across the Emory curriculum. Throughout the program, the full cohort of faculty, artist fellows, and their students will gather to learn about each other’s work and to exchange ideas across the campus about the arts and social justice. The semester concludes with a public unveiling and citywide conversation to consider collectively the completed projects and the questions they raised.