Summer 2010: Being About Action: Experiments in Creativity and Lifestyle Activism, A Summer Institute in Dialogue

May 12 - June 25. 10 credits (DIAL 390W, 391W).

We plan a 7-week journey of experiments led by students and focused on lifestyle activism and the creative process. Guests for course dialogue-archives will include leaders from across the region who have embarked on lifestyle activism through actions including zero waste, 100 mile diet, reducing oil dependence, and many others. We also will engage with guests who inspire creativity through a range of creative processes. Where does social change begin – at the level of the individual or the community? What happens when students engage in creativity? How does creativity interweave with individual lifestyle choices? Is there a relationship?

We will research the process, documenting our explorations on video and through print media. We hope to make a difference and track that difference so that others can be inspired to join us in this experiment.

This is an intensive and experiential course running five days per week, 9:30am-3:30pm.

FACULTY

Janet Moore is a faculty member at the Centre for Dialogue at SFU, collaborator with the SFU Centre for Sustainable Community Development and leader of a social network of sustainability educators (walkingthetalk.bc.ca).

Duane Elverum is an Emily Carr faculty member where he teaches in Design, Foundation, and Critical Studies as well as develops coursework in sustainable systems. He sits on the President’s Sustainability Task Force at the university. He is personally responsible for emitting 5.4 tonnes of CO2 per year into the atmosphere. He has crossed the Pacific Ocean in a sailboat five times.