Transformative Stories

  • ART AS COLLECTIVE | IDA Journal Spring 2026

    Art as Collective Our Spring 2026 edition of the IDA Journal centers on Art as Collective. Art is never made alone. In our practices, we carry the people, places, histories, and communities that have shaped us, including those we may never have met but whose lives and labor continue to move through our own. We…

Story Archive

  • Announcing our IDA Annual Spring Class, Unlearning Racism, Redefining Identity with very special Guest Instructors

    We are truly exciting to offer our IDA annual spring class looking at the arts and social justice. Entitled AAAS /CSRE 170A: Unlearning Racism, Redefining Identity – Culture Workers and the Frontlines of Change, this class will examine how the fabric of racism is inextricably woven and constructed into the founding principles of the United…


    Community Impact
  • Congratulations to Prof. Allyson Hobbs, Faculty Director of AAAS and former VPUE Harry Elam

    Recipients of the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching and The Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching The Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching Professor Allyson Hobbs, an associate professor of history in the School of Humanities and Sciences, was awarded the Walter J. Gores Award which recognizes undergraduate and graduate…


    Community Impact
  • Artistic Director of CBPA and IDA Artist-in-Residence Amara Tabor-Smith, Inaugural recipient of the Rainin Fellowship

    Amara Tabor-Smith was recently awarded an unrestricted $100,000 grant as well as supplemental support tailored to address specific artistic needs and goals. Administered by United States Artists, the Kenneth Rainin Fellowship recognizes artists working across Dance, Film, Public Space, and Theater who push the boundaries of creative expression, advance their field and are seen as cultural “anchors” for…


    Community Impact
  • Prof. Adam Banks, Faculty Director of IDA, appointed Bass University Fellow

    The Bass University Fellows in Undergraduate Education Program recognizes faculty members for their extraordinary contributions to undergraduate education. New and reappointed Bass Fellows Adam Banks, a professor in the Graduate School of Education and faculty director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric, was appointed The Hazy Family University Fellow in Undergraduate Education. Read the…


    Community Impact
  • Janani Balasubramanian

    We are really excited to be welcoming the extraordinary artist and scholar Janani Balasubramanian as our 2020 Visiting artist. Janani Balasubramanian is a writer, new media artist, and immersive theater maker based in New York City. Balasubramanian’s practice involves deep collaborations with astrophysicists, as well as engagement with both old storytelling forms and contemporary technologies…


    Artist Features
  • Rachel Lam, Class of ’20

    Artist Statement Rachel Lam (any pronouns) is an artist who works with visuals, sounds, words, and movement. The following is Rachel’s standard introduction for themselves in Cherokee: “Letsili dagwado’a. Tsigiduwagi nole tsitsaniyi-aniugama nole tsiyunega. Seattle digwatvsv’i. Nigalsdanv’i sidanelvi. My name is Rachel. I’m Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, white, and a first-generation Malaysian-American. I grew up…


    Community Impact
  • Joy Harjo – On Creating Balance

    From our 5 minutes YouTube video series


    Artist Features
  • Announcing The 2020 Lyric McHenry Community Arts Fellows

    It was with great pride that we announced the Lyric McHenry Community Arts Fellowship, at the Institute for Diversity in the Arts this past January, a new fund that gives Stanford Undergraduates the opportunity to spend a summer working full time in the arts with a focus on racial/social justice.  This program is named and…


    Fellowships
  • IDA Fellow Natalie Johnson awarded a VPA Senior Grant

    We are so excited and proud of our IDA fellow Natalie Johnson on her VPA Senior Grant. She was awarded funding from a highly competitive pool of close to 30 selected applications to execute an art project in the year after graduation. Natalie will spend the summer writing a speculative fiction novella, extending her creative…


    Artist Features
  • UPDATE: Spring Class & COVID-19

    To our IDA community During this time of change, we want to send you our love and solidarity. Today, as always, we take our cues from the most vulnerable of our communities. We send our support to BIPOC students, FLI students, Queer students, all those who might feel uprooted during this time. We send our…


    Community Impact
  • IDA Announces Annual Spring Class

    UNLEARNING RACISM, REDEFINING IDENTITY:Culture Workers and the Frontlines of Change  AAAS / CSRE 170AUnits: 1-4Letter / Credit / No CreditDATE & TIME :  Wednesdays, 6:00 PM – 7:50 PMIDA Instructors:  A-lan Holt & Amara Tabor-SmithGuest Instructors: TBA The fabric of racism is inextricably woven and constructed into the founding principles of the United States. As such, the…


    Classes