[Candrama] IFTR 2027: CfP Performance in Public Space Working Group

[Stevens, Fraser]

IFTR Annual Conference 2027: PiPS 2027 CFP
Convenors: Dr. David Calder (david.calder at manchester.ac.uk), Dr. Sam Čermák (acermak at ed.ac.uk), and Dr. Fraser Stevens (f.stevens at usask.ca)
University of the Peloponnese
Nafplion, Greece: June 28-July 02, 2027

KEYWORDS
Performance studies, public space, site, private

Performance in Public Spaces WG CALL FOR PAPERS / ABSTRACT PROPOSALS 2027
The working group Performance in Public Spaces looks forward to engaging with the conference theme ‘Hybridity’ and looks to focus in, especially, on the conference subtitle: rethinking borders and boundaries in theatre/performance and beyond. Over the past years our conversations have naturally interrogated public space and associated performance in many different capacities. This year we are exploring the lines and contours that shape and delineate performance in public space. To that end, we are posing the following prompt: what are the borders and boundaries of performance in public space as they relate to…

  *   Gender
  *   Power
  *   Violence
  *   Ritual
  *   Religion
  *   Nostalgia
  *   Political Protest
  *   Economies
  *   Queerness and Queering
  *   Environment
  *   Heritage
  *   Transgression
  *   Protest
  *   Privacy
Additionally, we look to engage the breadth of analysis that the theme of hybridity offers us. In turn, what does any subject from the list above do when acting as the preceding or contextualizing term for performance in public space? e.g. queer performance in public space or religious performance in public space.
Beyond these considerations, we welcome proposals that, as the conference organizers propose, consider hybridity as ‘conjoining/disjoining, constructing/deconstructing, synergizing, fusing or blending of cultures, forms, mediums or technologies – [offering] new ways of thinking about, making, and participating in theatre.’ What insights do we gain when thinking of performance in public space in hybridized ways? What are the research methods that would enable these explorations? What hybridized research methods might we employ or create? Answers to these questions might address any number of the categories laid out in the call, including creation and speculation, experience and aesthetics, methods and theories, impact and efficacy.
Abstracts/proposals of between 200 and 250 words are invited for this conference from scholars, teachers, researchers, artists, and students of theatre arts, theatre studies, performance studies, and other related disciplines.
Our Process
We present traditional 15-20 minute papers at our working group sessions or performative presentation to foster debate and discussion. We encourage work presented in process, research in early stages, grant proposals, half-baked ideas, and artistic and research sharings of all kinds in order to foster collegial discussions and feedback on researchers work. We strongly encourage members to attend every session of the Working Group during the conference so as to contribute to discussion throughout. Our sessions also include, wherever possible, a walking tour with a local artist on performance of public spaces in the conference location.
All abstracts should be submitted to via the IFTR website. Please visit the IFTR Conference 2027<https://iftr.org/conference-2027/> page. When prompted, please select ‘Performance in Public Spaces’ from the Working Group drop down menu.
Please do not send abstracts to the convenors. For more information on IFTR’s bursaries, visit https://iftr.org/about/bursaries/.
Deadline for Submission of Abstracts: 2 November 2026
Notification of Acceptance: 21 December 2026

For enquiries please contact: performanceinpublicspace at gmail.com<mailto:performanceinpublicspace at gmail.com> or any of the convenors

Dr Fraser Stevens
Assistant Professor
School for the Arts
193 John Mitchell Building
f.stevens at usask.ca

USask Drama
80 years in the middle of….

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