Performing Arts and Social Justice Major

The first undergraduate program of its kind in the nation, the Performing Arts and Social Justice major is deeply committed to the training and development of young artists fully engaged with the social issues that affect our lives. USF provides a training program in Theater and Dance, with a core community component and a space for critical reflection, based on the conviction that the arts, and the artists who practice them, do not exist in a vacuum, but are active participants in the process of shaping our culture.

If you are a young artist with a thirst for learning, and you believe that creativity and imagination are powerful instruments to change lives and build a better world, join us as a Performing Arts and Social Justice Major.

Courses

Performing Arts and Social Justice (PA & SJ) courses combine classical training and cutting-edge innovation within the thriving liberal arts environment of USF. After completing your foundations courses in performance, you will be admitted as a member to The Company, a student/faculty collaboration for majors only. The Company combines creative risk-taking with a serious engagement in community issues, culminating with the production of an original show. San Francisco provides a unique laboratory in which out students engage the world.

Students may choose an emphasis in either Dance or Theater. The major consists of 44 units.

Minors in Dance, Music, Theater, and Performing Arts

The Department of Fine and Performing Arts offers four separate minors for students who wish to supplement their major field of specialization with a serious study of dance, music, theater, and the interdisciplinary minor in performing arts.

Learning Outcomes for the Department of Performing Arts

• Students will gain a solid historical foundation of the Performing Arts (Music, Theater, and Dance) from Ancient Greece to the most recent historical contextualizations of contemporary performance, with a wide knowledge of the cultural diversity of performance and associated critical theories, both locally and globally.
• Students will gain a solid foundation in the technical skills and conceptual skills involved in the production of performance, while being nurtured in a creative environment that encourages experimentation. Instruction in a variety of disciplines will teach students how to use their skills to find their own individual artistic voices.
• Students willl be experienced in evaluating the success and professional quality of their own performances and the artwork of their peers, through the regular classroom process of rigorous, yet supportive, group and individual reflection, critique, and process.
• Students will graduate with a deep appreciation and knowledge of how to use their skills as performing artists to help to create social change and to help transform the world. Performing Arts students will graduate with solid connections to, and working relationships with, local, national and international community-based organizations, educational institutions, cultural organizations; paving their paths for continued and future associations with the world beyond USF as graduate students and artists for others.