The brilliant Black feminist scholar bell hooks once argued that “we cannot have a meaningful revolution without humor.” For 2026-2027 year, the Center for the Arts and Humanities invites explorations into and engagements with the idea of “joyful rebellion.” Are some forms of rebellion more joyful than others? How might activism (artistic and otherwise) be playful as well as subversive? How might rest, self-care, and laughter be construed as personal acts of resistance? Can deliberately choosing happiness resist or disrupt oppression?
We welcome the SCU community to propose conversations and events – including but not limited to faculty and student fellowship proposals – that offer ways of thinking about how joy and rebellion, broadly and individually defined, can occupy the same space simultaneously both contemporarily and throughout history.
Image courtesy of Mayra Sierra-Rivera '20, Studio Art major
