The Political Performances Working Group invites proposals for participation from academics and practitioner-researchers at all career stages for IFTR 2022 in Reykjavík, Iceland, 20 to 24 June 2022.

 

 

In line with our established practice, we have identified three loose strands that reflect the recent work of scholars in the wider field of political performances, but also align with the 2022 conference theme: Shifting Centres (In the Middle of Nowhere). 

 

The Political Performances Working Group therefore invites proposals for papers on the following topics:  

 

(A) Epistemologies
Political theatre & performance in relation to hierarchies of knowledge, decolonial practices, eco-dramaturgies, environmental activism, distinct theoretical, geographical and historical frameworks,  racialisation and difference, cultural interchange, utopian and/or dystopian possibilities, nonhuman actors, technological actants, cultural democracy, cultural policy, political dramaturgies emerging from these/related issues. 

 

(B) Place
Political theatre & performance in relation to, local/regional/national and international identities, the centre and the margins, participation and exclusion, physical and social reality, touring practices and circuits, sustainability as politicised social practice, urban and rural contexts and rhythms, rewilding performance, performance and the public sphere, the neoliberalisation of nature; political dramaturgies emerging from these/related issue. 

 

(C) Liminality 

Political theatre & political performance in relation to the economics of precarity, employment practices, transition and change, hybridity, transformation, displacement/replacement of identity politics,  initiation and separation, social cohesion, migratory flows, border controls, indigeneity and the environment; political dramaturgies emerging from these/related issues. 

 

Working Methods

The Working Group pre-circulates work-in-progress/paper drafts in advance of each conference. This allows more time for critical response and discussion from members of the group, who will have read the papers in advance. The work of the Group relies on the exchange of ideas building over the course of the conference. We therefore expect participants to attend all PPWG meetings at the conference. We aim to make reasonable adjustments for members whose circumstances do not allow this level of commitment. 

 

 

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. 

 

Abstract Submission 

Please submit abstracts through the Cambridge Core website. In order to make a submission you will need to be a member of IFTR:https://www.cambridge.org/core/membership/iftr. When you submit your abstract please make sure to indicate you are submitting to the ‘Political Performances Working Group’.  

  

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 31 January 2022. 

  

IFTR bursary information 

https://www.iftr.org/conference/bursaries 

  

The deadline for bursary applications is 15 December 2021. 

Working Group Convenors

 

Dr Julia Boll:  julia.boll@uni-hamburg.de

Dr Cristina Delgado-Garcia: cristina.delgadogarcia@glasgow.ac.uk

Professor Trish Reid: trish.reid@reading.ac.uk