Caroline Hann

Caroline Hann is a PhD student in Social Work at West Virginia University (Fall 2025 cohort). Her research centers on transformative justice theatre as a method of community engagement, which can create opportunities for healing, as well as facilitate opportunities for repair from systemic trauma. Caroline’s research will explore how this method can empower community leadership to influence social justice and equity policy. 

Caroline served for 12 years as the co-artistic director of The Meta Theatre Company (MTC), a social justice theatre company based in New Jersey. The cast of MTC rehearsed weekly in a women’s prison and performed original work inside/outside the prison walls to educate about the impact of mass incarceration. Growing up in a rural community, Caroline is inspired to build upon this anti-racist/gender-equity work in her research and apply these methods in working with Appalachian communities affected by systemic oppression.