With its associations of brilliance and achievement, "creativity" is a seductive concept — variously conceived as a shield against conformity, a channel for innovation across the arts, sciences, technology, and education, and a mechanism for economic revival and personal success.

But creativity has not always evoked these ideas. In The Creativity Complex (Michigan, 2023), Shannon Steen (Department of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies, UC Berkeley) traces the history of how creativity has come to mean the things it now does, and explores the ethical implications of how we use this term today for both the arts and the social world more broadly.

Steen is joined by David Henkin (History Department).