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

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

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