We invite you to contribute papers that bring forward the richness and diversity of approaches to tragedy in theatre, performance, and performativity that counter heteronormativity.

IFTR Annual Conference 2024

 

Our States of Emergency: Theatres and Performances of Tragedy

 

University of the Philippines Diliman

Manila, Philippines

15 – 19 July 2024

 

Queer Futures Working Group Call for Papers and Proposals

 

Tragedy, conventionally laden with notions of misfortune and despair, has historically been understood through a heteronormative lens. Furthermore, in narratives about queer lives, we have often had to contend with tropes such as “Bury Your Gays” which require LGBTIAQ+ characters to face tragic fates.

 

Our aim in contributing to this year’s conference theme is to expand this understanding by exploring the productive aspects of tragedy and melodrama and interrogate how heteronormativity could be challenged in these loci. As we navigate through various states of emergency – whether they be rising levels of homophobia and transphobia, health crises, environmental disasters, political upheavals, or social injustices – the need to examine these through a queer lens becomes increasingly vital.

 

Queer responses to tragedy have included concerted activist responses, camp and satirical re-workings, explorations of negativity (Lee Edelman), and/or utopian futures or futurities (José Esteban Muñoz), critiques of the good life (Lauren Berlant), and “queer orientations towards happiness and more” (Sara Ahmed).

 

We invite you to contribute papers that bring forward the richness and diversity of approaches to tragedy in theatre, performance, and performativity that counter heteronormativity.

 

Possible topics include:

 

·      What are the tragic dimensions within different cultural and political contexts of queer histories?

·      Countering Heteronormativity Through Tragedy: Alternative ways of storytelling and embodiment.

·      Luck, the spiritual, calamity and fortune as heteronormative tropes: Alternative ways to negotiate fate and inherited belief systems and worldviews.

·      Death and Disease as Normativity: Queer Ways to Live and Die.

·      Queer ways of rationalising and expressing the tragic in thought and death.

·      The Body in Queer Tragedy: How is the queer body represented and politicised in tragic performance.

·      Intersectionality in Tragic Narratives: Analysis of how queer tragedies intersect with issues of race, class, gender, and colonialism.

·      Performance, Performativity, Theatricality and Activism: Discussions of how queer theatre and performance serve as platforms for activism and resistance in the face of tragic circumstances.

·      The ways that queer performers and queer performance might resist the views of theatre and academic work as sites of tragic practices.

·      The material experience of tragedy on and off stage and the impact on queer lives of the precarity of labour – including academic labour – as politically performative.

·      How the prospect of living without securities impacts our production and productivity.

·      Queer Futurity and Tragedy: How do queer performances envision futures beyond tragic narratives, focusing on hope, resilience, and transformation.

·      How do queer performances envision futures beyond tragic narratives, focusing on themes of hope, resilience, and transformation?

·      Camp, silly and frivolous responses to tragedy.

·      Spectral Identities: The vernacular, the popular, celebrity and mediation.

·      Mediation and Politics: Tragedy or opportunity?

 

These topics are just suggestions, but we will accept papers on any topic connected to Queer Futures. We are also particularly eager to receive papers on any topic from those making or engaging with queer performance in the Philippines and across Southeast Asia.

 

If you would like to propose a panel, roundtable, workshop or other alternative conference session, please reach out to the co-convenors:

 

Jeremy Neideck

Phoebe Patey-Ferguson

Rodrigo Canete

 

Queer Futures Working Group Email: QueerFuturesWorkingGroupIFTR@gmail.com

 

 

Submission Information

 

All abstracts should be submitted to Cambridge Core. Please do not send abstracts to the organizers. Please note that you will have to be a member of the IFTR to submit an abstract. To join the IFTR or renew your membership, please visit the Cambridge Core membership page.

 

Deadline for Submission:               16 February 2024 - UPDATED DEADLINE

 

Conference Dates:                         15 – 19 July 2024

 

Conference Venue:                         The University of the Philippines Diliman

 

Conference Co-Conveners:            Prof. Sir Anril P. Tiatco: sptiatco@up.edu.ph

Dr. Oscar T. Serquiña, Jr.: otserquina@up.edu.ph

 

Contact Email for

Conference enquiries:                    iftrmanila2024.upd@up.edu.ph