Call for Papers African and Caribbean Theatre and Performance Working Group International Federation of Theatre Research (IFTR) Conference, Belgrade, Serbia, 9-13 July 2018

The African and Caribbean Theatre and Performance Working Group of the International Federation of Theatre Research (IFTR) is planning to meet during the forthcoming IFTR conference in Belgrade, Serbia from 9-13 July 2018. We invite abstracts of papers in progress for our 2018 Working Group meeting. 

We welcome papers that address the general conference theme: Theatre, Nation and Identity: Migration or Stasis (see https://www.iftr.org/conference/call-for-papers Cut and paste if link does not work). At the same time, with our eyes towards a future “special issue” journal, we are especially interested in papers that address the group’s current Working Group topic: "Global Africa: African and Caribbean identity and Community" at the Intersection of Expressive culture and Social media. 

Expressive culture

We recognize forms of embodied creative-aesthetic expression, including but not limited to conventional theater and performance, as long-standing means by which African and Caribbean peoples reflect on their past and current conditions; define themselves and their social worlds; and re-enforce, resist and subvert social orders. 

Social Media

As African and Caribbean peoples have gotten ever more tethered to electronic devices social media is increasingly a crucial part of their everyday life for cultivating public images and social ties and for forging connections across geographical barriers, with a profound effect on how they regard themselves and place in the world. In short, nowadays, social media seems often to be where and how the increasingly hyper-connected peoples of African and Caribbean descent imagine, interrogate, construct and contest identity and community.

At their intersection…

• How are social media interactions organized around African and Caribbean theatre and performance forms, genres, personalities and audiences, shaping notions of African and Caribbean identity and community?

• How are issues of race, ethnicity, gender, etc. interrogated and negotiated within this contemporary social space.

• If the interactions on social media are forms of social performance in and of themselves, how do they provide platforms or stages for identity and community to be “socially performed?

 Again, we welcome papers that address the above (or other) questions on the Group topic and/or that engage the general conference theme. We welcome co-authored papers and collaborative presentations, and new and continuing members. The abstract submission deadline is 31 January 2018.  Please keep the abstract to 250 words maximum 250. See  http://www.iftr.org/conference/abstract-submission for how to submit your abstracts.  Please note that you will be prompted to join IFTR or renew membership before you will be able to make a submission. We Group works by circulating a draft or work-in-progress of the papers in advance in order to make the most of the time and opportunity for discussing the papers. If your abstract is accepted we will ask for the draft (4000 words or less) by mid June 2018 or thereabouts to circulate among members of the working group.

Conveners: David A. Donkor (dadonkor@tamu.edu) and Andrew Millington (andrew.milligton@cavehill.uwi.edu)