Call for Papers: PSFG/ATHE 2020 Emerging Scholars Panel Competition

The Performance Studies Focus Group (PSFG) of the Association of Theater in Higher Education (ATHE) conference invites submissions of papers for its Emerging Scholars Panel. The theme of this year’s conference, which will take place in Detroit, MI July 29 – August 2, is “DRIVE < > Combustion < > Energy < > Resilience.”

The PSFG Emerging Scholars Panel is an opportunity for researchers to present their work at a major international conference at the outset of their career. All graduate students and scholars who have not yet presented at ATHE are eligible to apply. Selected emerging scholars are paired with a mentor from the field of Performance Studies who will offer critical feedback on papers in preparation for the conference. Successful applicants receive a $100 stipend as well as complimentary registration to the ATHE PSFG pre-conference.

Located at the boundaries and intersections of scholarly and artistic practice, Performance Studies theorizes and analyzes embodied practices and events, and explores the ways in which performance creates meaning and shapes social life. This year’s PSFG will develop a conversation on the theme of Drive using the cultural, political and economic backdrop of Detroit. In light of this year’s theme, some questions we will consider include:

• DRIVE: How can Performance Studies (PS) help us to learn from the past to envision and act upon a stronger future? How can PS help drive our field to a more welcoming environment and realistic institution?
• Combustion: How can we amalgamate voices and catalyze conversation without burning down the past and preempting the future? How do breakaway texts and dialogues in the field subvert or serve our peers and advocate for performance studies as inquiry and action?
• Energy: How have practices of consumers and producers influenced and been influenced by climate change and environmental activism?
• Resilience: How can we be responsible visitors to a city like Detroit (indeed, what some have deemed “the Renaissance City”)? How can artists/scholars serve as citizens and uplift their neighbors, but resist issues of gentrification and appropriation? What does PS have in its toolkit to foster shared community action/voice?

Submissions to the PSFG Emerging Scholars panel may engage these questions generated by the conference theme, or may address issues raised by Performance Studies more broadly. Papers across performance modes and historical periods are welcome. Topics may include:

• Contested boundaries between performance, theater, and other art forms/disciplines
• Performance as a modality of (historical) knowledge
• Historiographical approaches to performance
• Negotiating and building identity through performance
• Situating performance in terms of race, gender, and sexuality
• The role of performance in shifting configurations of power and resistance
• Performative strategies of the avant-garde
• Conflict, confrontation, and dissensus in the performance encounter
• Intersections of performance and philosophy
• Performance within postcolonial and neocolonial contexts
• Performativity and theatricality
• Embodiment and technological culture

Papers should be formatted using MLA or author-date Chicago style and adhere to a strict 2000-3000 word limit (including notes). The deadline for submission is Saturday, February 15, 2020. Please send completed papers (in Microsoft Word format) without your name anywhere in the text, along with a current CV to PSFG Graduate Representative Enzo Vásquez Toral at enzou.northwestern.edu. Results will be announced by late March 2020.

Winners will be responsible for registering to ATHE’s membership and conference on their own starting in May, and we will provide guidance in this process, as needed. Stipends will be given as reimbursement during the conference.