CONSULTATION & TEACHING
"It has become clear to me that what I’m actually teaching, regardless of the topic or subject matter, is life. I’m teaching human beings how to fearlessly identify, use and serve the world with their gifts and talents. I am teaching them the very skills that we know will be demanded of humanity in the 21st century.” - Dr. Amma
With 18+ years of teaching at the university level, Dr. Amma has advised, led master classes, and consulted for professionals across several industries, including: Broadway choreographers seeking to deepen their historical knowledge for new works, scholars and archivists desiring new methods to tell history, 6-12 grade teachers in National Endowment for the Humanities-funded summer institutes aiming to teach race and performance in U.S. history, Broadway producers and artists developing curricula for a pioneering, new theatre school, et al.
Dr. Amma empowers creatives and executives to assess the impact and potential of the works they create, the stories they tell, and their creative and business processes. As a generative artist herself, Dr. Amma works with creatives from an embodied appreciation of what the human spirit, mind, and body need to be creative, fulfilled, and honored.
Dr. Amma’s innovative approach to consulting and teaching encourages clients and learners to see their creative work as research and their research as the space for creativity; and to work from a place that honors their own gifts/talents and passions.
She says: “I want my clients, collaborators, and fellow learners to be fearless and just as familiar with the archive or historical context as they are with the stage, with footnotes and theory as they are with the importance of story beats and character arcs, and with a 19th century daguerreotype as they are with an episode of their latest favorite TV show.”
Testimonials
WHAT CLIENTS & LEARNERS SAY
“Her emphasis on the process of learning, not the result of it, requires tremendous trust in her scholartists, but it is that faith that empowers us to invest in the material and explore as a scholar should...
Dr. Amma does not force us to learn; she inspires us to do so.”
— Tyler Daugherty's student testimonial.
On the occasion of Dr. Amma's selection as
UGA's Center for Teaching and Learning's Teacher of the Week (Fall 2016)
© 2021 by Dr. Amma Y. Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin.
The term scholartist is credited to performance studies colleagues Joseph Shahadi and Mila Aponte-Gonzalez.