Carmen Morgan

Lecturer in Drama

Carmen Morgan is a Lecturer at the School of Drama and the Founder and Director of artEquity. Together with additional facilitators from artEquity, Carmen leads the following annual trainings for faculty, staff, students, and interns.

Beyond Diversity: Practicing Equity and Inclusion
(required for all first-year students, and all benefitted employees)

Manuel Pastor has spoken eloquently on the subject of the “coming America” – a world where demographic shifts and rapidly evolving definitions of identity are unprecedented. Throughout the contemporary world theatre, issues of representation, cultural equity, and artistic freedom are being revealed with greater and greater complexity. What are key literacies and practices for artists and managers in the changing landscape? How might the unique positions of art practitioners be used as points of leverage for social change, in artistic collaborations, cultural institutions, and in communities large and small? This highly interactive seminar provides participants with a functional framework to explore issues of difference, identity, equity, and structural barriers that serve to limit access, and encourage them to assess their past, present, and future. As members of a changing arts community, what is their role? What are the issues? What is their responsibility for social change? And where do they have agency?

Facilitation for Social Change
(Optional training for students, faculty, and staff.)

Paulo Freire asserts that if the "structure does not permit dialogue, the structure must change." This then is the role of the facilitator, to create the conditions for dialogue where they may not already exist. Building on the intensive workshop Beyond Diversity: Practicing Equity and Inclusion, this seminar moves beyond analysis-building to the application of facilitation skills that advance equity and inclusion. A new brand of cultural leader, artist, and manager is being called upon in the arts. Having the ability to facilitate conversations across difference in a climate of change is no longer an option; it is a requisite skill that is in demand. Participants will navigate the politics of language, social location, and identity; explore how to manage complex power dynamics, and create environments conducive for conversations around issues of difference.