Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI)

Graduate Assistantship

We created a graduate assistantship this semester, in which a graduate student worked with our Associate Chair in Theatre to engage in examining and revising our syllabi, course readings, class projects and guest artists towards incorporating more BIPOC texts/artists and discussions of race, multicultural, and gender studies.

Mission & Values Update

We have formed an ad hoc committee of THTR faculty and staff to update our Mission and Values statements to be aspirational, forward-looking, and inclusive, and we will share our draft with students for feedback and contribution. We want these statements to guide the revisioning of our curriculum and production season, decentralizing a Western-centric canon and embracing a multiplicity of ways of knowing and making throughout our department. As part of a Research 1 institution, our charge is to innovate, and we’re deeply considering this charge in our process of radical reimagining.

Curriculum Revision

We are in the process of revising our curriculum with an eye toward making our courses and degree programs more accessible to students across campus. We are looking to create more menu-driven options for students, to provide more flexibility and agency in course selection.

Safety Protocols

In our productions this year, we've been deeply concerned about the safety of all involved and have implemented strict COVID-related protocols and regular check-ins with cast and crew. We hope our season reflects movement in a positive direction towards diversity, equity and inclusion; this is a step, and we fully acknowledge that this work will take time.

Season Selection Process Revision

We are revising our season selection processes to make them more transparent and collaborative, and more inclusive of student input.

By-Laws Revision

We’re revising our by-laws and will be adding a combined Theatre & Dance JEDI committee that will be made up of faculty, staff, and students.

The Listening

We hosted a Zoom listening session on Oct. 27 with THE LISTENING, a New York based group specializing in helping theatre departments decolonize their curriculum and production seasons. This Spring, we will work with our Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement to set up meetings intended for BIPOC students and other underrepresented categories of identity to work together to create systems that incorporate antiracist policies and practices within our department, strengthen communication, and build trust between students, faculty and staff. These conversations will include how best to make space for more student-driven work in our production season, that supports and empowers student leadership in the selection and creation of theatre and performance.

Radical Re-imagining Sessions

In the Dance Program's continued efforts toward causing "good trouble" and doing the work of decolonizing the university and imagining new futures for dance, we are meeting this particular moment of actioning by transforming our Friday Town Halls to Radical Re-imagining Sessions.The sessions center collaboration, listening, and practicing.
We are in part inspired by the Open Letter that came from students. Although the history of the Dance Program reflect significant strides, resulting from a nearly 18-year process that was initiated by Onye Ozuzu (a former Director of Dance and a forever extended family member and mentor) and Dance Program members participating in The People’s Institute Undoing Racism training through now (where we are the most diverse and inclusive house on the CU campus, and a committed body of individuals to continuing the work), the Open Letter reminded us that there is much more work to do.
The goal is to create a space for faculty and students to engage in the work together as a practice – a way of becoming vs an exercise to fulfill a requirement. Our process will include inviting outside individuals to contribute in the conversations and will permeate many lanes within our house. For example, this year’s [un]W.R.A.P. (Undoing Writing, Research, & Performance) symposium will include guest artists, scholars, and thought-leaders who are making in this pandemic reality but who are also leaders in undoing racism cultural organizing, Racial Equity, Arts, and Culture Core members, and Creating New Futures founding members (a national movement started by performing artists to address inequities and social justice within our field, and to create new guiding principles that will interrupt more common practices that supported white body supremacy pre-COVID).
Another example of the ways we are doing the work will be reflected through the multifaceted and diverse season programming and our 10 Am Technique Friday sessions. An added note: Because we find tremendous value in teaching by doing, all sessions of our 5-part Radical Re-imagining series will reflect various modeling of collaboration. No session will be guided by only one individual.

Informational & Training Sessions

We've been working with our Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance to set up informational sessions on reporting incidents of discrimination, harassment, sexual misconduct or retaliation. Additionally, we’ll work with OIEC to create trainings and additional resources for our student non-Equity deputies to help ensure safety and prevent further harm in our rehearsals and productions.

Arts Community Involvement

We’ve begun conversations with professional artists and theatre companies in our community, to build more pipelines between our organizations and work together to make these important and much needed changes throughout our field.

New JEDI Webpage

We created a JEDI page on our website, to help make public our Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion efforts.