Political Performances Working Group CFP, IFTR2020 Galway, 13-17 July.

IFTR 2020, Galway

We invite researchers to submit abstracts to the Political Performances Working Group at the 2020 IFTR conference, which will take place on 13-17 July in Galway, Ireland. The theme for the 2020 conference is Theatre Ecologies: Environments, Sustainability, and Politics. We have identified three loose strands that reflect the recent work of many researchers in the wider field of political performances, but that also align with the 2020 conference theme:  environments, sustainability, and new political orders. The Political Performances Working Group therefore invites proposals for papers on the following topics:

 

(A) Environments
Ecologies of political theatre & performance in relation to the economic basis of theatre(s), funding infrastructures, training regimes, ecologies of social justice, employment practices, local/regional/national identity, hybridity, participation and exclusion, cultural democracy, cultural policy, urban and rural contexts and rhythms, rewilding performance, performance and the public sphere; political dramaturgies emerging from these/related issues.

 

B) Sustainability
Political theatre & performance in relation to the economics of precarity, sustainable development, environmental activism, redevelopment, touring practices and circuits, cultural interchange, technological innovation, peace-making, future-proofing, utopian and/or dystopian possibilities, sustainability as politicised social practice; political dramaturgies emerging from these/related issue.

 

(C) New political orders

Political theatre & political performance in relation to nonhuman actors, technological actants, inorganic and geological matter; displacement/replacement of identity politics, racialisation and difference, migratory flows, border controls, environmental governance and social justice; indigeneity and the environment; the neoliberalisation of nature; political dramaturgies emerging from these/related issues.

NB: The group welcomes research not only on contemporary political theatre, political performance and performative activism, but also on historical manifestations of political theatre and performance, and diachronic research.

 

Process

Accepted speakers will be asked to send convenors a draft of their work no later than Monday, 8 June 2020, so that drafts can be pre-circulated among Working Group members attending our meeting in Galway well in advance. At the Working Group sessions, presenters will be will be invited to frame the work they shared for 5-10 minutes. This will be followed by 15-20 minutes of dedicated responses and discussion by the group. The expectation is that the group’s engagement with drafts prior to the conference will generate more attentive, focused and deeper discussions about each contribution.

 

Delegates
The Political Performances Working Group welcomes new members and is keen to hear from academics across all career stages and geographical locations.

 

Abstract Submission
Deadline for abstract submission: 31 January 2020.
Deadline for abstract submission & bursary application: 15 December 2019. For more information on the 2020 bursary to attend the annual IFTR conference in Galway, please see: https://www.iftr.org/conference/bursaries

NB: All abstract submissions are made through the Cambridge Core website. In order to make a submission, you will need to become an IFTR member or update your membership. Please see: www.cambridge.org/core/membership/iftr
Once you access the Abstract Submission area, you will be prompted to provide the following information:

Brief CV – maximum 200 words
Abstract Title – maximum 30 words
Abstract – maximum 300 words

 

Questions?

Please direct any questions you may have about the conference to iftrgalway2020@gmail.com. The main conference site and instructions on how to access Cambridge Core can be found here: https://www.iftr.org/conference