Creating Communities of Hope

The East Side Institute is a hub for a diverse and emergent community of social activists, community organizers and entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and practitioners. Employing the unique methodology of social therapeutics, the Institute has played a leading role in creating a new form of globalization–one that is emerging at the grassroots and is generating the growth of new kinds of institutions and organizations for human-community development and humanizing social change around the world. The Institute's work is also an influence among scholars and researchers seeking new ways to understand what it is to be human, impediments to transformative actions at the individual, community and global levels, and how the recognition and reinitiation of our ability to perform ourselves is ushering in a new tactic of positive resistance, Performance Activism.

Join Carrie Lobman, researcher and community educator, and social therapist and community organizer Maria Jose Castrillo for an introduction to social therapeutics and performance activism. They will take you to some of the community stages in global and local social change movements, psychotherapy, education, after-school youth programs and the workplace. We will also play with some of the practical tools of performance and philosophizing. Seminal readings and videos will bring to life the diverse practice of social therapeutics. This course will take place through zoom video conference and asynchronous online conversation. 

Course begins on Saturday, April 12th and runs through Saturday, May 17th*

Zoom calls on six Saturdays, April 12th, 19th, 26th, and May 3rd, 10th, and 17th. The Zoom calls will be held on the above dates from 11:00AM to 12:45PM Eastern US & Canada (UTC-4). Click dates to the left for session times in your part of the world.

*Written conversation is asynchronous in accordance with participant's timezone and availability.

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Leader Biographies

Carrie Lobman is a sociocultural scholar and play movement leader. She is the Leader of Education and Research at the East Side Institute and associate professor in the department of Learning and Teaching at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University. She facilitates the Institute's "Play, Development and Social Justice" webinar series and co-leads the International Class, its flagship program. She serves as a mentor to emerging performance activists around the world and has served on the national board of directors of the All Stars Project. Carrie is the author or editor of three books: Unscripted Learning: Using Improvisation across the K-8 Curriculum, Big Ideas and Revolutionary Activity: Selected Essays, Talks and Articles by Lois Holzman and Performance and Play: Play and Culture Series, Volume 11. 

Maria Jose (Majo) Castrillo is a social therapist, activist and entrepreneur specializing in creating diverse environments for human development that can reawaken creativity  and co-creation. She studied Psychology at the University of Costa Rica  and completed her post-graduate work at the East Side Institute. Majo grew up in Costa Rica  and later moved to Mexico where she helps her clients (online and in person) to grow emotionally and create the life they want to live. She works with individuals, couples and groups. She is a co-founder of the Latin American Hub for Social Therapeutics, a center dedicated to disseminating,  researching and co-creating Social Therapeutics. The Hub  translated The Overweight Brain into Spanish,  which was published in 2024 in collaboration with the TAOS institute. Majo is a creative being who believes in the power of community to develop a kinder human culture.