Saturday 18 October 2014

Call for Papers: Sites of War


Sites of War

An Interdisciplinary Colloquium for Postgraduate Students
21 February 2015
Goldsmiths, University of London

We exist in a state of war.

This call for papers invites postgraduate students from a wide range of disciplines and with interdisciplinary perspectives to examine the relationship between politics, economics, society, culture, art, and sites of war.

We invite an interrogation of a wide spectrum of events and occurrences that fall within the literal and figurative ambit of this theme. Responses to the investigation can refer, but are not limited to: international warfare and revolutions like in Iraq, Syria and Hong Kong; acts of terror, and political strife encompassing diplomatic and foreign affairs engagements; economic confrontations including the fiscal and monetary; social struggles extending to migrants, refugees and displaced peoples; tensions over gender and sexuality; schisms of morality and ethics; religious dissension, and scientific and medical ideological debate; and how these impact social groups and how their responses to these events are culturally enacted; and whether culture itself, can be  said to be in a performative state of warfare.

Sites of War is the ninth annual postgraduate colloquium organised by the Sociology of Theatre and Performance, Research Group (STPRG) at Goldsmiths, University of London, under the direction of Professor Maria Shevtsova. This colloquium follows Theatres of Catastrophe (2014), and seeks to extend the threads of investigation that resulted from the event by excavating and analysing how cultures respond to struggle and contestation.

We warmly welcome submissions from postgraduate research students from UK and international universities for individual papers that do not exceed 15 minutes. We also invite practice-based responses to this topic. Please submit your name, department, university, conference paper title and a 250-word abstract or practice-based statement of intent to stpr.group@gmail.com.

Deadline for the application is 10 December 2014.

This colloquium is supported by The Graduate School, Goldsmiths, University of London, Diawa Foundation, Japan, and Suntory Foundation, Japan.

Please do contact us on stpr.group@gmail.com with any queries you may have. We look forward to hearing from you.

Phoebe Patey-Ferguson, Kyoko Iwaki and Geetha Creffield.
PhD Candidates, Department of Theatre and Performance
Sociology of Theatre and Performance Research Group

Goldsmiths, University of London

Wednesday 14 May 2014

Theatres of Catastrophe Programme of Events

We're excited to announce the full programme for Theatres of Catastrophe. 

This one-day interdisciplinary colloquium for postgraduate students will take place at Goldsmiths, University of London on Friday 30 May.

To register your attendance please email stpr.group@gmail.com. A £5 registration fee is payable on cash on the morning of the colloquium.

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Theatres of Catastrophe
Programme
                                            
                                  Goldsmiths, University of London
                                              Friday 30 May
                                                                       
9:30 – 10:20    Registration and Check-In
10:20 – 10:30  Introduction and Opening Remarks

Session One
Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre
10:30 – 10:45
Simon Bell
PhD Department of Music and Performing Arts
Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
Laibach and the NSK: The Performance of the European Traumatic Historical

10:45 – 10:55
Question and Answer session led by Geetha Creffield, Goldsmiths, University of London

11:00 – 11:15
Kate Rice
PhD School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts
Curtin University
Im/Possibilities of Response: Walter Benjamin’s Precarious Stance at the Crossroads of Crisis

11:15 – 11:20
Question and Answer session led by Geetha Creffield, Goldsmiths, University of London

11:30 – 11:45
Kyoko Iwaki
PhD Department of Theatre and Performance
Goldsmiths, University of London
Aesthetics of Here-and-There: Theatre After the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe

11:45 – 11:55
Question and Answer Session led by Philippa Burt, Goldsmiths, University of London

11:55 – 12:15
Coffee Break

Session Two
Laurie Grove Baths Tank Room

12:15 – 13:15
Roundtable discussion (TBC)


13:15 – 14:15
Break for Lunch 

Session Three
Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre

14:15 – 14:30
Sleiman El Hajj
PhD Faculty of Media, Art, and Technology
University of Gloucestershire
Sectarian Patriarchy Matters: the Geometry of Home in Rabih Alameddine’s  An Unnecessary Woman and Nada Awar Jarrar’s A Good Land

14:30 – 14:40
Question and Answer session led by Philippa Burt, Goldsmiths, University of London

14:45 – 15:00
Urün Kılıç
PhD MIRIAD (Manchester Institute For Research and Innovation in Art and Design)
Manchester Metropolitan University
Architecture & Post-Disaster Design

15:00 – 15:10
Question and Answer session led by Kyoko Iwaki, Goldsmiths, University of London

15:15 – 15:45
Geetha Creffield
MA Department of Theatre and Performance
Goldsmiths, University of London
Beyond the 2005 Tsunami: Remembrance, Amnesia and Performance

15:45 – 15:55
Question and Answer session led by Kyoko Iwaki, Goldsmiths, University of London


15:55 – 16:15
Short break


16:00 – 17:00
Panel Discussion

In Cultural Criticism and Society (1951), Theodor W. Adorno states that ‘to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.’ Through this provocation, Adorno questions if any words can be uttered after Holocaust and other historic social catastrophes by avoiding generating rote reiterations. Through these reifications, a monolithic voice labeled as ‘true account’ of the catastrophe emerges, which denies the nascent fissures in society that ends up in solidifying the exclusive mechanism sustaining social catastrophes. How could art and societies that cultivate art respond to these catastrophes without retrograding to a rote remembrance? Who are legitimate to claim for the ownership of the catastrophe and how should others critically approach these voices by not becoming a passive audience listening to the soliloquy of the ‘theatre of catastrophe’?

Panellists tbc

Panel discussion moderated by Kyoko Iwaki, Goldsmiths, University of London


17:00 – 17:10              Closing Remarks


17:15 – later
Post-colloquium social gathering

Monday 24 March 2014

Call for Papers: Theatres of Catastrophe

Call for Papers

Theatres of Catastrophe
An Interdisciplinary Colloquium for Postgraduate Students
30 May 2014
Goldsmiths, University of London

How can a catastrophe, or perceptions and intimations of catastrophe be said to influence, shape or threaten societies and culture? The notion of ‘theatres’ here is metaphoric, referring to sites and places, nature, politics and religion – anywhere and in any domain in which catastrophes occur, affect and change lives, and are debated and recorded. Our term also necessarily includes theatre as an artistic and social practice. How do theatre makers – and also spectators – deal with catastrophes in their work?

This student-led colloquium invites postgraduates from a wide range of disciplines and working in interdisciplinary ways to examine theatres of catastrophe, and the theatre that comes out of catastrophes. We invite responses to the following areas, although our list is by no means exhaustive: political strife, including wars and revolutions like the Arab Spring, and events in Ukraine and Thailand; foreign affairs engagements; economic and monetary upheavals; social misfortune; schisms of morality and ethics; religious dissension; scientific and medical calamities, including epidemics; and natural calamities such as earthquakes, Tsunamis, avalanches, landslides and floods. How are responses to such events culturally enacted? Can culture itself be said to be in a performative situation of calamity?

Theatres of Catastrophe is the eighth annual postgraduate colloquium organised by the Sociology of Theatre and Performance, Research Group (STPRG) at Goldsmiths, University of London, under the direction of Professor Maria Shevtsova. We normally have two-day meetings, but since logistics confine us to one day ( the case also of last year) this colloquium follows on from Culture in Crisis (2013): it seeks to pick up some earlier threads of investigation and dialogical conversation, while expanding discussion within  the remit of our new theme. Theatres of Catastrophe will provide an opportunity for postgraduates to engage with their peers across disciplines in a challenging and supportive environment. In addition to showcasing their own research, delegates will be invited to participate in roundtable discussions.

The STRPG is committed to facilitating opportunities for postgraduates from across the globe to meet, interact and exchange ideas in a truly interdisciplinary context. We warmly welcome submissions from postgraduate research students for individual papers that do not exceed 15 minutes. Please submit your name, department, university, conference paper title and a 250-word abstract to stpr.group@gmail.com.

Deadline for the application is 12 April 2014.

Please contact us on stpr.group@gmail.com with any queries you may have. We look forward to hearing from you!

Kyoko Iwaki and Geetha Creffield.
Postgraduate Students in the Department of Theatre and Performance
Sociology of Theatre and Performance Research Group
Goldsmiths, University of London


Thursday 30 May 2013

Last Chance to Register Attendance for Culture in Crisis

We are nearly at capacity, but there are a few more places left for Culture in Crisis, an interdisciplinary colloquium for postgraduate students organised and run by the Sociology of Theatre and Performance Research Group. 

Full details of the programme are below. Please email stpr.group@gmail.com to register your attendance. 

Monday 13 May 2013

Culture in Crisis – Programme Schedule

We are delighted to announce the confirmed schedule for Culture In Crisis, the seventh interdisciplinary colloquium for postgraduate students organised by the Sociology of Theatre and Performance. 

To book your place at the colloquium, please email stpr.group@gmail.com


Friday 31 May 2013 
Goldsmith University of London
Programme of Events

Location: Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre                                                                     

9:00 – 9:45
Registration and Check-In

9:45 – 9:55
Introduction and Opening Remarks

 Session One

10:00 – 10:15
Angels Miralda Tena
PhD Critical and Historical Studies
Royal College of Art
Changing of the World as Condition of Contemporary Culture

10:15 – 10:25
Question and Answer session led by Philippa Burt

10:30 – 10:45
Kyoko Iwaki
PhD Department of Theatre and Performance
Goldsmiths, University of London
Social Media as a Form of Witness Art after the Fukushima Crisis

10:45 – 10:55
Question and Answer session led by Philippa Burt

11:00 – 11:15
Swen Steinhauser
PhD Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies
University of Leeds
Im/Possibilities of response: Walter Benjamin’s precarious stance at the crossroads of crisis

11:15 – 11:25
Question and Answer Session led by Philippa Burt

11:30 – 11:45
Coffee Break

 Session Two

11:45 – 12:00
Jonas Leonhard Tinius
PhD Division of Social Anthropology
University of Cambridge
Patronage and Crisis: German theatre and cultural politics

12:00 – 12:10
Question and Answer session led by Arabella Stanger

12:15 – 12:30
Stuart Cartland
PhD Faculty of Arts
University of Brighton 
Identity in crisis/ as crisis?  Identity, crisis, discourse and the use of immigration

12:30 – 12:40
Question and Answer session led by Arabella Stanger

12:45 – 13:00
Stephanie O’Connor
MA Christian Theology
Heythrop College
Utilitarianism: The Crisis of Education

13:00 – 13:10
Question and Answer session led by Arabella Stanger

13:15 – 14:15
Break for Lunch

14:15 – 15:15
Panel Discussion
‘Encountering crisis: strategies and interventions for the present’?
Panellists TBC
Led by Rebecca McFadden, Goldsmiths, University of London

15:15– 15:30
Coffee Break

Session Three

15:30 – 15:45
Manette Kaisershot
PhD Political Economy
Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London
The Effects of the Global Financial Crisis and Why it is a Human Rights Issue

15:45 – 15:55
Question and Answer session led by Kyoko Iwaki

16:00 – 16:15
Tim Jeeves
PhD Theatre Studies
University of Lancaster 
The work of Kim Noble as Illustration of the Transgressive Potentialities of Generosity

16:15 – 16:25
Question and Answer session led by Kyoko Iwaki

16:30 – 16:50
Ruth Maclennan
PhD Photography
Royal College of Arts
Film Screening (introduced by the artist): Dialogue #5 (It’s not your problem)

16:50 – 17:10
Question and Answer session led by Kyoko Iwaki

17:10-17:20
Short break

17:20 – 18:20
Roundtable discussion
Location: NAB 302
Led by Scheherazaad Cooper, Goldsmiths