[Candrama] CFP: Performance and Migration: Focus on Practice - deadline extended

[Yana Meerzon]

Call for Papers
Performance and Migration: Focus on Practice
(Essays section of Critical Stages/Scènes critiques<https://www.critical-stages.org/31/category/essays/>, December 2026)

The CATR Performance, Migration and Nationalism Working Group and the IFTR Working Group Performance and Migration (Conveners: Yana Meerzon, University of Ottawa; Sheetala Bhat, York University; Steve Wilmer, Trinity College Dublin) join forces to mark a milestone: the group’s third anniversary in 2026. To celebrate this occasion, we invite proposals for focused essays (maximum 3,500 words) to be published in the Essays section of Critical Stages/Scènes critiques (CS/SC), the peer-reviewed, open-access journal of the International Association of Theatre Critics. Published in English and French, CS/SC is indexed in major academic databases and reaches an international readership of scholars, critics, artists, and cultural practitioners.
For this special issue, we seek contributions from:
· Migrant artists and artist-researchers working in performance and theatre
· Critics and scholars documenting such practices
· Artists collaborating with migrants and displaced communities
· Participants of migration-related performance projects
Why focus on practice? Performance has always been a space where lived experiences meet artistic form. In the context of migration, practice is not simply the “application” of ideas—it is a process of negotiation, adaptation, and cultural exchange. By focusing on practice, we hope to foreground the creative labour, ethical questions, and collaborative methodologies that shape performance-making in migration contexts. These essays will highlight how practice both reflects and transforms the politics of mobility, belonging, and representation.
We are especially interested in essays that examine practice—creative processes, methodologies, and performance strategies—in the context of migration.
Contributions may:
Ø  Reflect on the experience of creating or participating in performance projects about migration.
Ø  Analyse specific works or collaborative processes involving migrant communities.
Ø  Consider how performance can challenge nationalist narratives and foster more inclusive social imaginaries.
Ø  Share insights on the dramaturgy, aesthetics, and/or politics of site-specific, community-based, and/or participatory works.
Ø  Discuss methodological approaches for researching and documenting migration-related performance practices.
Ø  Discuss the intersections of and tensions between artistic and academic pedagogies and identities as artist-researchers.

Our aim is to bring together practitioners, participants, and researchers to propose new interdisciplinary approaches to migration in and through performance, and to demonstrate the role of the arts in shaping public discourse on mobility, belonging, inclusion, sanctuary, academic freedom, free speech, and citizenship.
Submission Guidelines
· Abstract (250) words with title, suggestion of your preferred format, such as scholarly essay, reflective piece, artist statement, or case study, and a short biography (100 words).  Deadline - December 20, 2025
· Acceptance notifications: January 2026
· First drafts: May–June 2026 (with the possibility to present these papers at the CATR 2026 [online] meeting or at the IFTR 2026 [in person in Melbourne] meeting)
· Peer review: Summer 2026
· Second drafts: September 2026
· Technical editing: Fall 2026
· Publication: December 2026
Please send proposals and / or questions to: iftr.performance.migration at gmail.com

Yana Meerzon, University of Ottawa
Sheetala Bhat, York University
Stephen Elliot Wilmer, Trinity College Dublin



Yana Meerzon

Professeure titulaire| Full Professor

Directrice des études théâtrales | Director of Theatre Studies

Département de théâtre | Department of Theatre
Université d’Ottawa | University of Ottawa
135 Séraphin-Marion, bureau 304B
Ottawa (ON), Canada, K1N 6N5

https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/members/270

Editor. Critical Stages/Scènes critiques<http://www.critical-stages.org/19/the-essay-section-la-section-des-essais/>
Co-Editor. Palgrave Studies in Performance and Migration (book series)<https://www.springer.com/series/17066>






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