Imagining Justice

What can a perspective grounded in arts and humanistic inquiry bring to the criminal justice system? How can insights from the arts open up new frameworks and practices in ways that attend to both grievance and grief, redress and restoration, accountability and forgiveness?

Imagining Justice is a program designed to intervene into the racialized criminal justice system through an approach that combines creative intervention and scholarly reflection. It includes an arts-based diversion and prevention program that offers an alternative to fines, incarceration, and a criminal record for juveniles arrested for misdemeanors and non-violent felonies. Participants in the program complete a multi-part arts workshop led by local teaching artists that includes critical reflection, creative expression, and dialogue. Imagining Justice also curates a speaker series, which brings to campus leading scholars working at the intersection of criminal law and the humanities. The program is led by Professor Jisha Menon (Theater & Performance Studies) and Professor David Sklansky (Stanford Law School) and is a partnership among the Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity, the Stanford Arts Institute, Stanford Criminal Justice Center, Oakland International High School, and community partners.

Funders: Stanford Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Stanford Arts Institute, Vice Presidents for the Arts.