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Another FaCTS Mellon Project

Performance, Literature and Social Responsibility

by Dr. Elizabeth C Edgecomb

This project will restructure CMST 2010, Performance of Literature, into a service-learning course working with public school children in late elementary school. CMST 2010 engages students with the connections between staged performance and the performance of everyday life roles through the creative staging of poetry and prose. Literature is a representation of cultural and social life therefore engaging texts as having both literary and performative meaning requires deep bodily reflection on self and societal roles. The performance-based goal of this course is that students will engage concepts of cultural difference, identity, motive, and communication in both the classroom and as they work to teach children literary adaptation and performance. The service-learning goal is to promote social responsibility by giving students the opportunity to directly engage and benefit their community in ways that simultaneously deepen their understanding of course concepts. This active, bodily engagement in the community will also show students the possibilities for their future civic involvement while acting as role models for both active learning and community engagement for the children with whom they work. In addition, this project will allow me to investigate and document the practical and theoretical implications for combining civic engagement and performance in the undergraduate classroom.

Start date: Monday, May 14, 2012
Finish date: Wednesday, May 8, 2013