CfP: 2023 IFTR Queer Futures Working Group

The Queer Futures working group invites proposals for papers that engage with the theme of "Invisibility in Visibility: Denial, Self Effacement and Story Telling for Survival".

The Queer Futures working group of the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) invites proposals for papers that engage with the theme of "Invisibility in Visibility: Denial, Self Effacement and Story Telling for Survival" for its upcoming conference in Accra, Ghana, 24-28 July 2023.

The convenors recognize the intense discrimination and persecution facing the queer community in Ghana and encourage proposals that seek to engage or align with the Ghanaian queer activist movement. We hope to draw on a global queer network of theatre and performance researchers to extend solidarities and contribute our energies to ongoing struggles for LGBTQ+ rights. 

Foregrounding the necessity for all queer people to have what Judith Butler coined as ‘liveable lives,’ we would like to share strategies for staging stories by and for a queer counter-public that employ coding, concealment, covertness or obtuseness for the continued survival and growth of people and their movements. Building on queer scholarship that questions the efficacy, limitations and social ramifications of representation in the mainstream, we want to consider why, how and to whom we tell our stories. Furthermore, we invite discussions of the ongoing impact of the invisibilisation in dominant narratives of violent legacies of colonialism and imperialist white supremacy on LGTBQ+ lives in Ghana and across the Global South, their diasporic communities, and Indigenous peoples. 

Potential topics for papers may include, but are not limited to:

• The use of storytelling as a tool for survival and resistance for queer ‘liveable lives’ in various communities across the globe, in historical and contemporary contexts.
• The intersections of queer identities, visibility or invisibility as they are staged or performed.
• Strategies of silence, as well as when ‘your silence will not protect you’ (Audre Lorde).
• The historical or contemporary use of guerilla performance strategies to tell stories that contravene dominant laws or legislations. 
• Strategies of denial and self-effacement as survival mechanisms for LGBTQ+ individuals.
• The role of performance and theatre in shaping queer visibility and activism, particularly in oppressive circumstances. 
• The connections and solidarities between the queer activist movement in Ghana and global LGBTQ+ movements.

We welcome submissions from scholars and practitioners that are not limited to papers but might include workshops, panel discussions or presentations/performances of practice. We hope to hold some hybrid panels so please indicate on your submission if you can only present online. The co-convenors are also available for questions or discussions about attending the conference for LGBTQ+ people. 

The deadline for proposal submissions is Monday, 27 February 2023. Proposals should include a title, an abstract of no more than 250 words, and a brief bio of the author(s).

To be in contact with the Queer Futures Working Group, please email: j.neideck@ecu.edu.au

We look forward to receiving your proposals!