CfP: 21 Century Performance and Research (University of Malta, 9-11 March 2016)

[Stefan Aquilina]

*21 Century Performance and Research*


*Annual Conference hosted by*

*the School of Performing Arts (University of Malta)*



*9-11 March 2016*



*Call for Proposals*





*Keynote Speakers:*


Prof. Christopher Balme, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft,
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (Munich)



Prof. Sarah Whatley, Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University



Prof. Jonathan Stock, School of Music and Theatre, University College Cork



The School of Performing Arts at the University of Malta will be holding
its third Annual Conference in March 2016, on the theme of *21 Century
Performance and Research*.  The conference will contribute to the creative
imagining of the developing field of 21 Century Studies, by locating
performance as a space of investigative research and practice that responds
to the challenges marking the twenty-first century.



Already at this early stage, the twenty-first century is exhibiting a
series of characteristic pointers on which future scenarios can be
envisaged.  Digital technology, for long the exclusive domain of
specialists, now permeates everyday life where websites, blogs, and social
media highlight and theatricalise even the most basic and seemingly
inconsequential behavioural acts. Knowledge and its creation, traditionally
seen as the very raison d’être of universities, is treated less as the
imparting of formal and well-defined information and more as a lived
experience that mutates into different materialities and their consequent
phenomenologies. A difficult economic scenario is still being
experienced, while
globalisation and the widespread movement of people contrast with
conventional conceptions of what constitutes and functions as communities.
Such considerations are at the heart of this call and, building on the
success of previous years, the conference will locate performance as a
point of intersection between disciplines in a way that contributes to
current debates on the use of interdisciplinarity as a creative and
analytic research strategy for the twenty-first century. Moreover, the
conference will not limit its enquiries to the contemporary world, by
recognising that current issues and challenges often have roots in the
recent and not-so recent past. Knowledge of our political, social,
economic, and cultural histories add to the understanding of today’s world
and those of tomorrow.



Presentations exploring (but not limited to) the following questions and
themes are, therefore, being invited:



·       How is performance rearticulated in the twenty-first century? Which
forces impinge on performance research and practice?

·       Which academic fields are involved in defining 21 Century Studies,
and how do they relate to performance in general and the performing arts in
particular?

·       How do the performing arts reflect (or not) twenty-first-century
issues pertaining to the environment, migration, health, politics, etc.?

·       How do late twentieth-century performance phenomena mutate in the
twenty-first?

·       Twenty-first-century theoretical applications (e.g. critical
posthumanism, postphenomenology, technoscience studies, and cognitive
science) to theatre and performance practice and research;

·       Addressing historical and historiographical research from
twenty-first-century perspectives;

·       Future challenges to the fields of performance.



Abstracts of a maximum of 300 words should be submitted by the *15 January
2016 *to Dr Stefan Aquilina (*stefan.aquilina at um.edu.mt
<stefan.aquilina at um.edu.mt>*), Director of Research of the School of
Performing Arts and conference convener. Acceptance will be confirmed in
early February. Kindly include a brief bionote and any technical equipment
you might need. Primarily, the conference will take the form of
conventional 15-20 minutes presentations, but presenters wishing to suggest

practice as research contributions or other forms of practical work are
also invited to contact the conference convener.



Dr Stefan Aquilina

Lecturer, Department of Theatre Studies

Director of Research, School of Performing Arts

University of Malta



Tel: 00356 2340 2989
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