Call for Papers 10-14 July 2017 Sao Paulo Historiography Working Group

Call for Papers: 2017 IFTR 10-14 Sao Paulo Historiography Working Group

 The IFTR Historiography Working Group will be meeting during the IFTR conference in São Paulo, Brazil, 10-14 July 2017. The working group welcomes papers from new and existing dealing with any possible period or topic in theatre history, but as the group is dedicated to theatre historiography, authors are asked to focus on methodological and epistemological problems related to the history of theatre and performance. Historiographical questions discussed by participants may be illustrated through specific case examples, and there are no restrictions on the historical time or place a proposal might involve or on the kind of historiographical approach explored.

The Historiography Working Group welcomes, but does not confine itself, to papers addressing the theme of the conference. The general theme of the upcoming conference, "Unstable Geographies, Multiple Theatricalities," has various critical implications for theatre historiography, which has traditionally explored the relation between geography and theatre. As presented in the convener's description, this year's conference theme "aims at the political and economic issues underlying the territorial and symbolic conflicts of a globalized world and, at the same time, targets the expansiveness of theatrical and performative fields that recognize and surprise each other. Massive migrations and the growing deterritorialization of human cultures have been accompanied by increasingly unstable artistic standards, concepts and institutional relations." See the announcement of the conference for a full elaboration of the topic and subthemes, see the IFTR website at iftr.org.

The Historiography Working Group works by circulating papers to members in advance of the conference for in-depth discussion in sessions at the conference. The aim of the group’s discussion is always to be constructive. Submissions are normally linked to a research project that the author currently has in progress. There are two possibilities:

a) Scholars share a work in progress, usually an article or book chapter excerpt (5000-word limit), framed by historiographical questions. They are invited to speak for not more than ten minutes about the context in which they have written their pieces, and about historiographical points where they would particularly welcome a response. (Participants take care to read all the papers carefully, so an oral summary of the paper is discouraged.) The group spends about 20 minutes discussing each paper, and the emphasis of the discussion is upon historiographical method rather than the detail of the content.

b) Scholars share a short essay (2000-word limit) that takes up a specific historiographical problem, possibly in response to the conference or convening theme. This might be a think piece or provocation. The shorter papers will be grouped together in panels within the working group and discussed collectively to encourage discussion across themes and problems.

Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted January 15, 2017 by following instructions on the conference website, indicating that you are submitting to the Historiography Working Group. Please indicate whether you are proposing a 2,000 word or 5,000 word paper and include in your abstract a clear statement about the historiographical questions raised by the work.

The Working Group conveners will select proposals that best fit the historiographical theme of our group. We shall particularly welcome proposals from new scholars and from scholars outside Europe. If we cannot accommodate your paper, we will refer it to the conference organizers for possible placement on a general panel.

The full text of the selected paper ( a) no more than 5000 words / b) no more than 2000 words) should be emailed to the conveners by June 1, 2017, for uploading to the group’s website. For further information please do not hesitate to contact one of the conveners.

Information about the group can be found on http://theaterhistoriography.wordpress.com/

Please share this call for papers with any colleagues or research students whom you think may be interested. The current conveners of the Historiography Working Group are 

Mechele Leon (mleon@ku.edu) University of Kansas

Nora Probst (nora.probst@uni-koeln.de) University of Cologne

Jo Robinson (jo.robinson@nottingham.ac.uk) University of Nottingham