Performance Studies International

Things are progressing well towards the August conference in Copenhagen. We will be welcoming a new working group on Performance and Philosophy convened by Laura Cull at the School of Performance Arts, University of Exeter. For information on this please see the PSi website under 'groups'.

Members should be aware that the PSi 14 organisers are planning to post all abstracts along with all delegates' professional contact details on the Interregnum website in the next few weeks. These will be available in pdf form only so as to prevent access by spammers. This is in response to requests from the New York conference last year for contact information to be made available to delegates so as to permit post conference communications. This can be useful for those of us who always seem to leave the office without our business cards... If anyone has any objections to the publication of their contact details please contact info@interregnum.dk by 10 April.

Also we are planning to change the mode of delivery of this digest so that, in the next few months, you will no longer receive the entirety of the digest in multiple emails. Instead you will receive just the summary in email form and a link to the PSi website where the full content will be made available under the heading 'Digest'. More on this and other news down the track.

Best,

Edward Scheer
President, PSi

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2. PSi #14 ANNOUNCEMENTS

News from the Interregnum conference organisers:

The organising committee has been busy evaluating all incoming proposals together with a select team of advisers and in close contact with the PSi president and board. All proposers should by now have received a mail of acceptance or rejection. If you have not, please contact us at info@interregnum.dk.

For those seeking financial support for travel and accommodation for the Interregnum conference in Copenhagen, you can still apply for the Dwight Conquergood Award. Deadline is April 14th, and applicants can expect a reply around May 1st. Please follow the guidelines at www.psi-web.org/texts/awards.html and forward the application to info@interregnum.dk

From early April it will be possible to register for the conference and pay with credit card online. There are different fees for early and late registrations, so be sure to register early (before June 1st). The registration site will be open soon on www.interregnum.dk under Registration.

You will need to make your own accommodation arrangements in Copenhagen, however, the organising committee has made some pre-bookings at a selection of hotels in Copenhagen. See more Hotel Information at www.interregnum.dk under General Info, then Travel Info.

From mid-April you can see lists of accepted proposals on the Interregnum website, and it will be possible to download abstracts of panels, papers, workshops, performance and other presentations. Short biographical statements as well as website links for those individuals who have provided the information will also appear. If you have not already done so, you can send your biographical statement (max 50 words) and website link to info@interregnum.dk.

Interregnum Bulletin Board

If you have a notice or a request concerning the forthcoming Interregnum conference in Copenhagen that you wish to share with others conference participants, please send an e-mail with a short text and your contact information to info@interregnum.dk. We will publish your notice in the next newsletter (coming out in the beginning of each month).

News from hyPerform

Also be sure to visit the internet gallery associated with Interregnum conference: www.hyperform.dk

Smooth spaces with system critical software art Curator Lea Schick

It is important to remember first that the technical is always political, that network architecture are politics.

This month hyperform presents two pieces of software art that draw our attention towards the non-neutrality of the hidden backside of navigation software. The two art works News-Jockey and ShiftSpace takes a critical view of the systems that decide our possibilities of surfing the Internet in a smooth and uncontrolled way.

Gunhild Borggreen
Conference Organiser

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CALLS FOR PAPERS (CONFERENCES AND PUBLICATIONS)

3. CfP: International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, July 28-Aug 2 2008, Helsinki, Finland (no date)

The 11th International Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI) will be held from 28 July to 2 August 2008, at the University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. See http://issei2008.haifa.ac.il/ for the conference website, with details on ISSEI, the conference program and links to registration and information on accommodation. The overall conference topic for 2008 is Language and the Scientific Imagination.

The conference is organised around individual workshops (panels) across a wide range of subject areas and disciplines. Within the section covering Art, Theater, Literature, Culture, Music, I am organising a panel on Scientific / empirical studies of theatre, literature and the arts

In this workshop / panel, we explore examples of completed, ongoing or planned research projects in which a phenomenon of theatre, literature or the arts has been / will be subjected to investigation employing the methodology of science. An example is an empirical psychological study (using questionnaires and measures of saliva cortisol, heart rate and breathing frequency) comparing two different approaches to helping stage actors overcome excessive stage fright. We will discuss what these examples can tell us about the efficacy of science in allowing us to arrive at a better understanding of phenomena on theatre, literature and the arts.

Please send abstracts of existing, ongoing or planned projects that meet the remit of the above workshop description and brief CVs to the me, preferably by email:

Professor Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe
Lincoln School of Performing Arts
LPAC Building
University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool
Lincoln LN6 7TS
UK
Email:
dmeyerdinkgrafe@lincoln.ac.uk

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4. CfP: 'Power and Place' - Australia & New Zealand Communication Association, July 9-11 2008, Massey U, Wellington, NZ (due April 14)

Second-round CFP

There's still time to submit papers to the Australian & New Zealand Communication Association Conference. The conference will be held in Wellington, New Zealand on July 9-11, 2008. We welcome participants from a variety of disciplines to explore new directions in communication research.

Theme: The conference theme "Power and Place" brings together two of the most challenging and thought-provoking dimensions of communication and culture.

Call for papers: We warmly invite conference papers of up to 4,000 words broadly exploring topics related to the theme of Power and Place. Check out the programme section of our website http://anzca08.massey.ac.nz <http://anzca08.massey.ac.nz/> for the different streams, and have a look at the array of topics in the papers submitted so far.

Important dates: April 14: Final versions of refereed papers are due. This is also the final date for the second round of refereed papers. (The first round of refereeing has closed, but you can submit full papers to the second round for a summary refereeing decision.)

June 9: Final date for non-refereed submissions. Send an abstract only. See http://anzca08.massey.ac.nz <http://anzca08.massey.ac.nz/> for details.

Why contribute?

- We're the biggest annual gathering in Australasia for educators and researchers in communication, organisational communication, media, public relations, and journalism, and we always welcome a lively stream of trans-disciplinary presenters in cultural studies and related areas.

- Refereed papers will be published in the ANZCA08 proceedings, an official online refereed conference proceedings publication with international refereed publication status.

- We're often noted for our extremely friendly conferences!

Speakers: The conference features an excellent array of guest speakers, including Professor Maxwell McCombs, Professor Jennifer Craik, Nicky Hager, Professor Ngatata Love, Professor Karen Ross.

Postgraduates: Postgraduate students are especially welcome. See the Postgraduate section of our website for details of special functions, prizes, and more.

More information: Check out our comprehensive website at http://anzca08.massey.ac.nz <http://anzca08.massey.ac.nz/>

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5. CfP: 'The Hidden City: Mythogeography, Writing, & Site-Specific Performance' - Oct 4 2008, U of Plymouth, UK (due April 14)

Saturday, 4 October 2008 at the University of Plymouth

Confirmed presenters to date include: Mike Pearson, Nicolas Whybrow, Dee Heddon, Carl Lavery & Gerry Davies, and Lee Miller & Joanne 'Bob' Whalley.

Arranged to coincide with Part Exchange's week-long Hidden City Festival of site specific performance and new writing in Plymouth, this symposium will interrogate the varieties of, and possibilities for, writing in a site-specific performance practice that addresses the multiple narratives and trajectories of the city.

Mythogeography is the theorisation of an experimental approach to the site of performance as a space of multiple layers. This approach might include numerous influences and strategies, perhaps including the atmospheres and effects of psychogeography, and the deployment (both analogical and direct) of geological, archaeological and historiographical ideas and methods. It is self-reflexive in the sense that it would regard the performer as a similarly multiplicitous site.

Mythogeography is not a finished model, neither in its theoretical nor practical forms. It is a general approach which emphasises hybridity, but does not attempt to determine what combination of elements might be in that hybrid.

The concept and practice arose from the work of Wrights & Sites as the company found itself working in sharply contested spaces, often jostling monocular 'heritage', commercial or municipal interpretations. In response they developed different mythogeographical approaches, learning and drawing from many past and contemporary artists of site, including Fluxus, Mike Pearson, and Fiona Templeton.

The intention of the symposium is not to interrogate any one mythogeographical approach, nor even to engage with the concept (which, intentionally, offers nothing unique or original), but rather to discuss general principles and actual practices of multiple layering and hybridic assemblage of site and performer in relation to the act of writing site-specific performance.

While the everyday "performing" of the city is a widely accepted discourse in urban geography, so performance makers have increasingly engaged with urbanist ideas - from the situationists, through de Certeau to Doreen Massey's theories of urban space. "The Hidden City" symposium will review this relationship through performance writing, exploring what other discourses are available to the writer in the contemporary city. It will draw on a continuum of urban site-based performance writing: from site-inspired play texts and site-specific theatre, through the re-writing of the everyday, to delicate, de-materialised interventions. Questions to be addressed might include:

* How does the performance writer address the city's invisible, marginalised and esoteric sites?

* What are the possibilities for writing sited in urban site-specific performance right now?

* Is there a continuum on which both urban new theatre writing and site-specific practice both sit?

* How does the performance writer address the screens and stages of the image-drenched city? The University of Plymouth Press will be publishing Hidden City Festival documentation and selected symposium papers in an illustrated volume. The symposium will include the launch of a new book, Walking, Writing and Performance: Autobiographical Texts by Deirdre Heddon, Carl Lavery & Phil Smith (ed. Roberta Mock) from Intellect.

Proposals for papers (20 minutes in length) that address the conference themes are now invited. Performative papers are most welcome. Subjects that papers could address include:

* The city and site-specificity.

* The performance writer and the urban site.

* Urban walking and performance.

* Writing and urbanism.

* Writing as an urban performance.

* Mythogeography and psychogeography.

* Multiplicity and performing the city.

* Writing, performance and the urban everyday.

* Hidden theatres in the city.

* The esoteric city and the exoteric performance.

* Writing for site-specific theatre in the city.

Proposals should be no longer than 350 words in length and should additionally include any technical, spatial or resource requirements as well as a brief biographical note (100 words maximum). They should be sent to Roberta Mock (roberta.mock_at_plymouth.ac.uk) & Phil Smith (perform.smith_at_ukgateway.net) by 14 April 2008.

We look forward to welcoming you to Plymouth!

Roberta Mock, Phil Smith, & Christine Hall
(symposium organizers)

www.plymouth.ac.uk/arts/theatre

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6. CfP: 'Renderings: Shakespeare across Continents' - Sept 10-12 2008, U of Nottingham Ningo, China (due April 15)

Dear All,

Please find below information and a cfp for the conference 'Renderings: Shakespeare across Continents' which will be held at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China, 10-12th September 2008.

http://www.nottingham.edu.cn/conference/shakespeare/

This conference explores current trends and possible shifts of paradigms in the translation, performance and teaching of Shakespeare. Paper sessions are 20 minute slots with 10 minutes for questions/discussion.

Presentations are invited in particular on the following themes: Shakespeare in translation The impact of translation on linguistic legitimisation and linguistic extension. The use of local dialects and other linguistic resources in representing Shakespeare's slang. The impact of changing political climates on contemporary translations of Shakespeare. Shakespeare in performance The making of regional Shakespearean canons in theatre, opera and film. Demystifying the bard: Shakespeare as a world wide cultural resource. The impact of changing audience expectations on form and language. Teaching Shakespeare The role of Shakespeare in education (in particular, in East Asia and postcolonial contexts). The implications of teaching Shakespeare through translation. The role of performance in teaching Shakespeare. Using Shakespeare for language teaching.

Keynote speakers
Professor Peter Holland (University of Notre Dame)
Dr Li Ruru (University of Leeds)
Professor Kate McLuskie (Shakespeare Institute)
Professor John McRae (University of Nottingham)

Submission guidelines
Abstracts should not exceed 300 words and should also contain the following information: author name, affiliation, postal address and email address. The abstract must be in Microsoft Word or PDF file format and submitted as an email attachment to:shakespeare@nottingham.edu.cn

Important dates
Abstract submission deadline: 15th of April 2008.
Deadline for the submission of a 1000 word camera-ready synopsis of the paper: 15th of August 2008. These synopses will form part of the conference literature handed out to attendees.

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7. Cf Participation: 'Archaeologies of memory in the global south: uncovering and displaying the remembered and unremembered past' - June 9-11 2008, Brown U, US (due April 20)

A seminar for the rising generation of scholars, curators, and activists Brown University, Providence, RI

June 9-11, 2008

Brown University's Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World and the John Nicholas Brown Center for public humanities and cultural heritage invite your application to a seminar to explore the archaeologies of memory in the global south. We will consider the ways in which ancient times, aboriginal cultures, colonial society, and post-colonial conflicts have been remembered and forgotten, ignored or displayed, heralded or discarded. This seminar will consider both the theory of cultural heritage and its practice, looking to understand the complexities of the past's shaping of our times, and the way that our times shape our understanding of the past. We believe that the wide range of topics will let us reflect on the challenges, practical, political, and social and economic benefits, and personal pleasures of examining and presenting the past.

The seminar, to be held June 9-11, will bring together academics and practitioners from the global south with a small group of Brown faculty, students, and visiting experts. Each of the visiting scholars and practitioners will be asked to present a case study of his or her work for discussion by the group. There will be tours to nearby sites that address complex issues of cultural heritage, including the Mashantucket Museum and Research Center, and Plimoth Plantation.

Brown University will provide funding for travel and accommodations for participants. Please apply by sending a c.v. and a description of the work you would present at the conference to Steven Lubar, lubar@brown.edu, by April 20, 2008.

http://www.brown.edu/Research/JNBC/memoryseminar.html

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8. CfP: Colloquy (due April 21)

The deadline for articles concerning the theme of colloquy's next issue, on the theme of Walter Benjamin's "Critique of Violence", Jacques Derrida's "Force of Law", and related subject matter, has been extended. We encourage postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and research fellows to submit scholarly articles, in line with the style guide published at our website (www.colloquy.monash.edu.au), by April 21st to be considered for the December Issue #16.

Articles of an unrelated nature will also be considered for a general section to be added to the themed section (both refereed in a double-blind process), and creative writing or opinion pieces are also welcome for an unrefereed section of the electronic journal.

Kind regards, Geoff Berry,
General Editor

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9. CfP: 'Relevant Arts for Sustainable Global Development' - Femi Osofisan International Conference on Performance, June 17-21 2008, Ibadan, Nigeria (due April 25)

Website: http://www.osofisanconference.net <http://www.osofisanconference.net/>
Contact name: Izuu Nwankwo E.

The Femi Osofisan International Conferenc on Performance 2008 will focus on the place of arts in sustainable global development. It is intended to look at ways in which arts would be leveraged to further address developmental issues.

Theme: RELEVANT ARTS FOR SUSTAINABLE GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT Deadline for abstracts/proposals: 25 April 2008 (Check the event website for latest details.)

Call for papers
In the recent past, there has been an upsurge in interdisciplinary research. Part of the reason is hinged on the belief that solutions to issues in contemporary societies can only be arrived at through a concerted effort generated across several fields. In more specific words, no academic discipline can claim to have all the solutions there are to global problems. And since the major issue confronting the world today is the challenges associated with globalisation, it behoves every academic discipline to proffer solutions to these global challenges through the agency of appropriating all its accoutrements and leveraging them with those of others with a view to ameliorating the challenges of under-development. As such, when we talk of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for instance, the issues of how the arts and humanities can position themselves appropriately in generating and proffering solutions for their attainment, becomes non-negotiable. This is because, any academic discipline that fails to align itself to the generating solutions to the ruling societal challenges of any epoch would soon find itself grappling with the reality of atrophy. This is the reason behind the saying that a deity that does what is expected of it is never deprived of worshippers.

The Professor Femi Osofisan International Conference on Performance is irrevocably committed to providing scholars/researchers with the requisite platform for academic discourse and interaction which would ultimately generate ideas towards the transformation of various societies. The Conference will illustrate and exemplify the wide range of recent scholarly research from various fields in the area of development. It will seek to advance further scholarly work in this area by providing an overview of recent work and by providing an opportunity for scholars in this subject to make contact with each other. In this way, it is hoped that the Conference will advance the establishment of distinctive scholarly resource in the field of requisite art for global development. In this wise two publications are expected from this Conference:

1. A Book of Conference Proceedings which will contain all papers to be presented, and 2. A Peer-Reviewed Book on Developmental Art.

Proposals for papers to be presented at the conference are warmly invited. Papers may go beyond the list of sub-themes listed below but should essentially embody developmental issues in society. Papers are welcome from academic researchers of all disciplines and should advance rational academic enquiry into the way and manner academic postulations can be translated into result-oriented approaches to developmental. Serious consideration would be given to papers that would itemise and demonstrate the "hows" as regards issues of attaining development in the society. Papers should embody original research and should not have been previously published. Proposals should consist of not more than 250 words, typed single space, 12 points, Times New Roman, giving details of the current academic affiliation of the author(s) on the same page. Papers may be presented in English or French. Proposals which are accepted will be assigned to an appropriate session by the academic committee. Each paper should be no more than twenty minutes long when delivered. The use of visual material for presentations is highly encouraged as effort will be made to supply the relevant hardware. Sub-Themes

Arts and Sustainable Development
Gender and Performance
African Arts/Performance and Globalisation
Arts/Performance and Modern Technology
Language Question in African Arts/Performance
Performance in Post Military Africa
Modern Theories in African Performance/Arts
The Works of Femi Osofisan
African Performance and Medicine
The MDGs and Contemporary performance/Arts
Performance and ICT
Postcolonial African Performance
Youth and Performance

Submitting a paper or panel
Full papers are to be received by e-mail before the commencement of the conference so that they can be compiled in The Book of Conference Proceedings. Full papers should not be more that 20 pages, typed 1.5 spacing with 12 points, Times New Roman with Modern Languages Association (MLA) referencing style. The first page of the full paper only should indicate the academic affiliation, contact information and other personal details of the author(s). Abstracts and full papers should be sent differently as MS Word file attachment only to one of the conference e-mail addresses:

femiosofisan2008conf@yahoo.com or femiosofisan2008conf@gmail.com

Further enquiries can also be sent to these addresses.

Submissions should contain:
Author's name, institution, contact addresses, phone nos. Co-author's names (if applicable) Title of paper Three to five suggested key words for indexing papers 250 word abstract of the paper

Receipt of your submissions will be acknowledged within 5 working days.

Deadlines
Abstracts should be received on or before Friday, 25th April, 2008. Late submissions will not be considered for The Book of Abstracts.

Full papers should be received on or before Friday, 30th May, 2008. Late submissions will not be entertained.

Payment for registration should be sent in by 9th June, 2008. The registration form (available on this website soon) should also be completed and sent in by that date to the conference e-mail address to help the organizers make adequate provisions and arrangements.

All papers submitted would be subject to anonymous peer review. Successful papers would be published in a reputable journal.

Fees
Participants from Africa?Registration Fee: N5,000
International Participants' Fee: EUR50
Notes

There will be play performances during the conference. Attendees will be responsible for their accommodation. Attendees from outside Nigeria should inform the Conference organisers of their arrival details. Professor Femi Osofisan International Conference on Performance Relevant Arts for Sustainable Global Development

University of Ibadan, Nigeria, 17-21 June 2008

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10. CfP: 'Performance, Embodiment and Cultural Memory' - Volume of Essays, 2009, (due April 30)

A Volume of Essays

Editors: Colin Counsell & Roberta Mock

(Cambridge Scholars Press)

Recent decades have seen a proliferation of writings dealing with the body as site of cultural inscription. Theorists such as Foucault, Butler, Bourdieu and Bordo have examined the ways cultural norms are impressed upon bodies, most frequently viewing the somatic as a realm of regulation and domination. In contrast, the work of performance scholars such as Joseph Roach and Diana Taylor addresses the body as a key vehicle of culture in general, a medium of semic storage and transmission, and so an arena not just of domination but also of contestation and resistance. All figure the body, the practices and disciplines it enacts, the objects that adorn it, and the frames through which it is perceived, as the canvas on which past experiences and extant aesthetics and knowledges are etched and rehearsed: the site of memory.

Performance, Embodiment, & Cultural Memory will comprise a collection of essays addressing the body as the medium of cultural memory in, through, and as performance. The editors invite colleagues to offer proposals on any subject relevant to this topic and would particularly welcome contemporary perspectives that are not EuroAmerican. Possible areas for consideration include, but are not restricted to:

* the performing or behaving body as the site of taxonomic, disciplinary, and mnemonic systems; alternatively, the body as site of agency or cultural resistance;
* how bodies are mapped by practices of individual and/or collective identity, or are the medium of extant 'scenarios' (Taylor);
* how collective and individual memories are performed, transformed, and/or transformative;
* memory and 'cultural performance' (Singer, MacAloon, Carlson);
* bodily enactment as history; history as embodied memory;
* the cultural shaping of bodies for and in performance;
* embodiment and the 'social frameworks of memory' (Halbwachs)
* image-making, the body, and the 'phenomenology of memories' (Ricoeur)
* the interplay of monumentalization, performance, and memory politics
* materiality, including material space, as a framework for cultural memory.

Proposals should in most instances be for chapters of c. 5000-6000 words. They should be a maximum of 250 words, and should be sent in electronic form both to Colin Counsell (c.counsell@londonmet.ac.uk) and Roberta Mock (r.mock@plymouth.ac.uk). Please also include a short biographical statement (of no more than 150 words).

The deadline for proposals is 30 April 2008.

Other key dates: 31 May 2008 (notification of acceptance); 1 November 2008 (first drafts); 1 February 2009 (final drafts).

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11. CfP Reminder: 'New Communities of Knowledge and Practice' - Digital Resources in the Humanities and Arts (DHRA) 2008, Sept 14-17 2008, Cambridge U, UK (due April 30)

The DRHA (Digital Resources in the Humanities and Arts) conference is held annually at various academic venues throughout the UK. The conference theme this year is to promote discussion around new collaborative environments, collective knowledge and redefining disciplinary boundaries. The conference, hosted by Cambridge with its fantastic choice of conference venues will take place from Sunday 14th September to Wednesday 17th September

The aim of the conference is to:

- Establish a site for mutually creative exchanges of knowledge.
- Promote discussion around new collaborative environments and collective knowledge.
- Encourage and celebrate the connections and tensions within the liminal spaces that exist between the Arts and Humanities.
- Redefine disciplinary boundaries.
- Create a forum for debate around notions of the 'solitary' and the collaborative across the Arts and Humanities.
- Explore the impact of the Arts and Humanities on ICT: design and narrative structures and visa versa.

There will be a variety of sessions concerned with the above but also with a particular emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration and theorising around practice. There will also be various installations and performances focussing on the same theme.

Keynote talks will be given by our plenary speakers who we are pleased to announce are Sher Doruff, Research Fellow (Art, Research and Theory Lectoraat) and Mentor at the Amsterdam School for the Arts, Alan Liu, Professor of English, University of California Santa Barbara and Sally Jane Norman, Director of the Culture Lab, Newcastle University

In addition to this, there will be various round table discussions together with a panel relating to 'Second Life' and a special forum 'Engaging research and performance through pervasive and locative arts projects' led by Steve Benford, Professor of Collaborative Computing, University of Nottingham. Also planned is the opportunity for a more immediate and informal presentation of work in our 'Quickfire' style events. Whether papers, performance or other, all proposals should reflect the critical engagement at the heart of DRHA.

Visit the website at http://www.rsd.cam.ac.uk/drha08/ for more information and a link to the proposals website.

The Deadline for submissions will be 30 April 2008 and abstracts should be approximately 1000 words.

Cambridge's venues range from the traditional to the contemporary all situated within walking distance of central departments, museums and galleries. The conference will be based around Cambridge University's Sedgwick Site, particularly the West Road concert hall, where delegates will have use of a wide range of facilities including a recital room and a 'black box' performance space, to cater for this year's parallel programming and performances.

Sue Broadhurst
DRHA Programme Chair

Dr Sue Broadhurst,
Reader in Drama and Technology,
Head of Drama,
School of Arts,
Brunel University,
Email: susan.broadhurst@brunel.ac.uk

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12. CfP: 'South Asia' - Special Issue of International Journal of Zizek Studies, December 2008 (due April 30)

http://zizekstudies.org/??

Guest Editors: Gopalan Ravindran (gopalanravindran@rediffmail.com) and Angad Chowdary

Subaltern Studies Media and Communications Collective is proud to collaborate with the International Journal of Zizek Studies in bringing out a special issue of the journal for writings on South Asis, either to elaborate on or critique the ideas of Slavoj Zizek. We welcome papers analysing/theorising South Asia on the topics given below (though not limited to).

- postcolonialism?
- ideology
- myths?
- fundamentalism?
- secularism
- multiculturalism?
- psychoanalysis
- popular culture?
- mass media
- capital
- globalization
- cyberspace?
- human rights
- post-marxism
- modernity
- feudalism
- tradition
- regionalism
- sub-nationalism
- populism
- cult behaviour

The deadline for submission of abstracts (500 words) is April 30 2008. Full papers are due by Oct 15 2008.Revisions: Nov.15. Tentative release date Dec. 15 2008.

Please visit http://zizekstudies.org <http://zizekstudies.org/> for citation style.

Please mail your abstracts and papers to gopalanravindran@rediffmail.com.????
Gopalan Ravindran, PhD.,
Reader
Dept.of Communication
Manonmaniam Sundaranar University
Tirunelveli 627012
TN India

www.subalterncinema.com/ravi
www.indiaphotoculture.blogspot.com

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13. CfP: Digital Interactive Media in Entertainment and Arts (DIMEA) 2008, Sept 10-12 2008, Athens Information Technology, Athens, Greece (due April 30)

Athens Information Technology (AIT), Athens, Greece
Conference Web site: http://www.dimea2008.org <http://www.dimea2008.org/> ? Paper and Art/Demos Submission Deadline: April 30ieth, 2008

The advances in computer entertainment, multi-player/online gaming, technology-enabled art, culture and performance have created new forms of entertainment that attract, immerse and?absorb their participants. The phenomenal success of such a "culture" to initiate a mass audience in patterns and practices of its own consumption has supported the evolution of an enormously powerful mass entertainment, digital art and performance industry extending deeply into every aspect of our lives, leading further to major societal and business contacting changes. The International Conference on Digital Interactive Media in Entertainment and Arts (DIMEA), in cooperation with ACM, is the premier forum for the presentation of societal, business and technological advances and research results in cross-disciplinary areas related with digital interactive media in entertainment, art and creative technologies. This conference is dedicated to build common ground between research, design and development, learning and collaboration in its myriad digital media forms: one of its many objectives is the exploration of 'play & learn', demonstrating new arenas and applications for digital gaming and incorporating leading edge technologies, designs and models in our changing views about what is involved in gaming.

DIMEA 2008 is jointly organized by Athens Information Technology (AIT), ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI, Singapore Chapter) and the Society for Excellence and Innovation in Interactive Experience Design (InExDe) DIMEA 2008 will bring together academics, technologists, artists, designers, and industry representatives to address and advance the leading edge of new digital and interactive media.

Who should attend: Academics, Animators, Artists, Designers, Developers, Educators, Engineers, Game Designers, Industry Professionals, Media Industry, Video Producers, Directors, Writers, Performers, Photographers, Videographers, Researchers, Students. Anyone who wants to be inspired to adopt advanced ways in industry, society, business, research and teaching, expand their knowledge on a wide variety of topics within the field of digital media, network with cross-disciplinary experts from digital media professionals to academic experts, and evolve with this ever-changing field!

The following, non exclusive, topics are called for: Entertainment, Art and Technology, Location-based and Pervasive Gaming, Mobile Entertainment, Digital Games in Practice,?Computer Entertainment Research, Open-Source Gaming Engines, Implications for Multimedia?and Web Design, Artistic Games, Commercial Games, Edutainment, Educational/Serious Games,?Interactive Games, Games as Pedagogy, Analysis of Games, e-Performance (e-Opera,?e-Theatre, e-Concert, ...), Virtual Exhibitions and Museums?New Media Emerging Technologies?Personal Broadcasting (Podcasting and Vlogging), Novel Applications for Mobile Phones,?Social and Interactive Computing Applications, Collaborative Spaces/Environments,?Innovative Applications of Technology in the Arts, Mixed Reality and Enhanced Visualization,?Context-aware Environments and Devices, Immersive Learning Experiences, Communication?Technologies and Systems for Digital Media, Advanced Authoring and Composition of Media,?Advanced Interaction, Targeted/Personalized Media, Adaptable Media and AI Code Art, Algorithmic Art, Software Art, Net Art, Installation Art, Tangible Computing, Sonic Art, Digital Visual and Auditory Media, Digital Photography, Digital Imaging as Art, Advances in 3D Modelling, Digital Printing, Non-Photorealistic Rendering, Digital Sound and Music, Digital Music Synthesis and? Composition, Graphics and Animations, Digital Comics, Moving Media, Digital Video, Distance Collaboration/Performance, Computer Animation, Interactive Movies, Culture of New Media, Network Culture, Philosophy of New Media, Digital Identity, Interactive Stories, Digital Narrative, Digital Asset Management, Semantic Web Technologies, Interactive, Television and Cinema, Game Design and Storytelling

SUBMISSIONS

Full Paper Submissions

Prospective authors are invited to submit full technical papers of not more than 8 pages, including tables, figures and references. Papers should present original research related to the above mentioned scientific areas, not published elsewhere. Full paper submissions should adhere to the ACM SIG Proceedings style guidelines. The respective templates may be found at: http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html?

Please use the style "Strict Adherence to SIGS style - (Sheridan Printing)" on that page.

Demo/Art/Game Submissions

Practitioners in the DIMEA2008 areas are invited to submit not more than 1 page short description of their Digital Art Work/Demo/Game to be considered for demonstration at DIMEA2008. Papers or Demo/Art/Game short descriptions may be submitted electronically at the DIMEA2008 online paper submission service. Until the online paper submission system is opened up to prospective authors and practitioners, papers or demo/art/game short descriptions may be submitted by e-mail to: sots@ait.edu.gr?

In either submission process, authors are advised to contact the Conference Organizers? (sots@ait.edu.gr), in case they have not received an acknowledgement of paper receipt? within two days of submission. Full papers will be peer-reviewed by at least two reviewers from the International Technical Program Committee in a single-blind process. Demo/Art Work/Game submissions? will be reviewed by the respective Chairs and their formulated committees. Tutorials and Seminars, Special Sessions, Exhibitions and Industrial Demos will additionally be organized during DIMEA2008.

IMPORTANT DATES
Full Paper Submission: April 30, 2008
Demo/Art Work/Game Submission: April 30, 2008?
Notification of Acceptance: May 30, 2008
Camera-ready Paper Submission: June 15, 2008

More details can be found at: http://www.dimea2008.org <http://www.dimea2008.org/>

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14. CfP: 'Migration, Diaspora, Pilgrimage' - ICOM-ICME annual meeting - Nov 17-19 2008, Jerusalem, Israel (due April 30)

CALL FOR PAPERS - 2nd Announcement

"Migration, Diaspora, Pilgrimage"
ICOM-ICME annual meeting, Jerusalem
November 17-19, 2008

ICME (the ICOM International Committee for Museums of Ethnography) will hold its 2008 annual conference "Migration, Diaspora, Pilgrimage" in Jerusalem on 17-19 November, 2008. The meeting will be hosted by The Isaac Kaplan Old Yishuv Court Museum and the Jerusalem Foundation in collaboration with ICOM-Israel, L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art, Tower of David Museum of the History of Jerusalem, and U. Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art. Final details are still being confirmed, but the general format of the annual meeting will consist of paper and discussion sessions, museum visits including discussions with staff, and walking tours with community scholars.

The conference will be preceded by a one-day walking tour of pilgrimage sites in Jerusalem and will be followed by a two-day post-conference tour of pilgrimage sites in northern Israel.

Registration forms, registration fee information, hotels, post-conference tour costs and other details will be available on the ICME web site in early February at http://icme.icom.museum <http://icme.icom.museum/>

CALL FOR PAPERS: "MIGRATION, DIASPORA, PILGRIMAGE"
People move. Some movement is voluntary - better economic and political situations are sought. Other movement is involuntary. Through the processes of migration and in the diaspora, many people keep alive their identity through the continuity of language, social structure, traditional culture, and belief systems. Part of this latter cultural expression leads people to return to their places of origin to reverence sites they consider to be holy or to hold power. Many as individuals and as groups return from the diaspora to their places of origin in the process of pilgrimage. The sites to which they return might be sacred or they might be secular. Nonetheless, pilgrimage is a process that crosses many lines of meaning.

Museum of ethnography and ethnology hold material culture, which speaks to the origins of many peoples. What is the role of museums of ethnography and ethnology in these processes - migration, diaspora, pilgrimage? Do research and collecting policies and public programs bring light to these processes with reference to communities in which the museums are located? On the other hand, have museums become sites of pilgrimage for those who cannot make return visits home? Do museums of ethnography and ethnology work with community leaders to help members keep alive their traditional culture, beliefs and memories?

ICME invites papers discussing "Migration, Diaspora, Pilgrimage" for the 2008 Annual Conference. Paper proposals of up to 300 words should be submitted to: president@icme.icom.museum by April 31, 2008.

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15. CfP: Themed Open Exchange' - TaPRA, Sept 3-5 2008, (due May 5)

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the dates of this year's TaPRA conference, which we will be hosting at the University of Leeds on Wednesday 3 to Friday 5 September 2008. Further details, which will be updated regularly as the details are finalised, can be found at www.tapra.org

Conference fees, including one year's membership of TaPRA, will be £135 (waged) and £50 (student/unwaged).

Presentation of research at the TaPRA conference happens through one of the established working groups within the organisation. For information about currently constituted working groups, and their plans and calls for papers for the TaPRA 2008 conference go to www.tapra.org

For 2008, we are also planning an open themed exchange to facilitate discussion across TaPRA working groups. To complement the Working Group sessions, we are planning two Themed Open Exchange sessions. The call for contributions to these sessions appears below.

Many thanks and all Best Wishes,
Helen Iball, Joslin McKinney and Lourdes Orozco

Call for Papers: Themed Open Exchange

The driving forces of TaPRA are its working groups, and the annual conferences their primary forum. At TaPRA 2007 conference in Birmingham it became clear that the specialist focus of these groups enabled a particular and vibrant approach to plenary discussion for the full conference. Indeed, questions posed by each working group for discussion by the others inspired a plenary that addressed theatre, performance and ethics from the particular perspectives the groups represent.

Last year's conference started an interesting discussion that this call for contributions to the two full-conference 'themed open exchange' sessions hopes to continue. It also provides an opportunity for delegates to present at TaPRA without and/or within an affinity to a named working group.

Proposals are sought for short (10 minute) presentations/provocations on the theme of theatre, performance, and ethics, to facilitate discussion across the conference. We aim to constitute panels representing a range of specialist interests and to be inclusive of participants at all stages from post-graduate to professor. Drawing on matters arising from the 2007 conference, proposals might consider:

(re)thinking and/or (re)theorising links between ethics and aesthetics - and between ethics and archives and performance re/construction...

How do we decide what is acceptable in the theatre? And what is expected of audiences?

To what degree does political efficacy rely on theatrical affectiveness?

Theatrical truth and/as provisionality, authenticity, witness...

Please send 300 word proposals to h.iball@leeds.ac.uk by 5 May 2008.

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16. CfP: 'C20th and C21st Performer' Training Working Group - TaPRA, Sept 3-5 2008, U of Leeds, UK (May 5)

Dear Colleagues

The Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA, www.tapra.org), will hold its 4th Annual Conference at the University of Leeds from September 3-5, 2008.

Now in its third year, the C20th and C21st Performer Training Working Group is delighted to issue a call for papers for this conference, picking up on the threads of our discussions last year and intersecting with the first UK visit of the internationally renowned Ukrainian theatre director, Andriy Zholdak, who trained with Anatoly Vasiliev. Zholdak will be running a masterclass for a week alongside the TaPRA working group and will be presenting a public lecture on his work as part of the conference. It is hoped that ONE of our conference working group sessions will be devoted to an engagement with Zholdak's master class, followed by a reflection on the experience. More details of this to follow nearer the time.

Papers, provocations, position statements and instances of practice (of varying lengths) are invited to cover any area of current research into performer training, but colleagues might like to pick up on one or more of the following themes emerging from the vibrant discussions we had last year. 250 word (max) proposals with brief biography and resource needs are requested by 5th May 2008 to all three convenors:

David Shirley d.g.shirley@mmu.ac.uk;
Simon Murray s.murray@dartington.ac.uk;
Jonathan Pitches j.pitches@leeds.ac.uk.

1. The intuitive performer. (What does this imply and at what level does it involve 'training' in the way we normally understand it? What is the nature of the relationship between intuition and expertise? How do we document and speak of such intuitive processes?)

2 The ways and means of embodying knowledge in workshop/theatre making environments. (What models of training are involved here and how can we test their efficacy?)

3. Contemporary political economies and their impact on C21st performer training (Is 'deep' training possible at all in the HE sector today?)

4. Reflections/papers/thoughts on the 'disembodied' spoken voice in performance; recorded, mechanised, amplified, politicised etc.

Please feel free to have a conversation with any or all of the three convenors as you consider what you might offer for the working group sessions. Our group also welcomes participants who do not wish to present a paper or provocation.

With best wishes on behalf of my co-convenors

Jonathan
Professor Jonathan Pitches
Chair in Theatre and Performance
School of Performance and Cultural Industries,
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT?UK
E: j.pitches@leeds.ac.uk
W: www.leeds.ac.uk/paci

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17. CfP: 'Performance, Identity, Community' Working Group - TaPRA, Sept 3-5 2008, U of Leeds, UK (May 5)

Dear Colleagues

The Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA, www.tapra.org), will hold its 4th Annual Conference at the University of Leeds from September 3-5, 2008.

Please find below the working group statement and call for papers for the Performance, Identity, Community Working Group

Working group statement:

The relationships between performance, identity and community are of significant critical concern in theatre and performance studies. This working group explores the ways performance can allow constituencies of interest to be realised and to gain social efficacy. The group understands that each of our three key terms is complex, and that the terms and consequences of their intersection pose challenges for both critical and political practice. We wish to encourage research that engages the rubric of the group inventively and interrogatively, building on a number of key issues and problems:

- The basis on which performance may be linked with concerns of identity and community
- The ways in which relationships between performance, identity and community are materialised and gain theatrical and social efficacy
- The intersection between performance, civil society and democracy
- The historical and geographical inscription of this relationship
- The challenges and opportunities for critical practice posed by examining this relationship.

Performance, Identity, Community 2008: Populism and Marginality

For TaPRA 2008 we invite contributions that respond in any way to the working group's statement above. However, we are particularly keen to organise our discussions around ideas of populism and marginality. This is a deliberately wide frame to enable us to consider questions of representation, address, participation, advocacy and recognition. Notions of 'the popular' and 'the people' are notoriously vague but extremely powerful. They underpin a wide range of assumptions about political organisation and representation, and form a context for the analysis of the production and consumption of culture and the arts. From the guarantee of the right to 'high quality arts experiences', to the offering of five portions of art per week for school children, UK state bodies posit a direct correlation between social cohesion, social good and cultural activity which seem to extend beyond engagement in mass and popular culture. How do theatre and performance interact with the popular? Is there a need to develop and enhance popular taste, or must artists and academics learn to find the political in the popular? What does it mean for performance to serve a community in this political context? How can we conceptualise and analyse this relationship between artist and citizen, and what are the political implications of this analysis? How do ideas of consumerism and choice enter this relationship? What is the relationship between the vernacular, the folk and the popular?

We invite papers and proposals for panel discussions that engage with theatre and performance artists in their attempts to engage with constituencies of any sort, from the most elite to the most ubiquitous, from the commercially successful, to the politically disenfranchised. We also look for contributions that will critique and analyse the problematic framing of the popular and the marginal. We see issues of advocacy and inclusion as hugely influential in the analysis of this area and encourage contributors who work in this field to question their approach and practice: what are the problems/limitations of 'acting' the 'advocate'? Is it possible to advocate for others without problematic relations of power being involved? What does it mean to speak for others who are unwilling/unable to speak for themselves? Where do we get our knowledge of other perspectives, and how do we analyse the dynamics of power at play in this field?

Please send a brief (250 word) proposal and a brief biographical statement by Monday the 5th of May to Nadine Holdsworth and Colette Conroy: N.Holdsworth@warwick.ac.uk Colette.Conroy@uwe.ac.uk.

NB. At TaPRA 2008 the Performance, Identity, Community working group will be offering at least one shared panel with the Applied Theatre and Performance working group to explore areas of intersection and convergence.

With best wishes
Colette Conroy and Nadine Holdsworth

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18. Cf contributions: 'Small Screen Revelations: Apocalypse and Prophecy in Contemporary Television' - Publication 2009 (due May 5)

Editor: Marcus O'Donnell
Publisher: Sheffield Phoenix Press
Series: Apocalypse and Popular Culture
Series Editor: Dr John Walliss
Publication date: late 2009

Contributions are required for a new collection of essays that explores the apocalyptic and prophetic in contemporary television drama and news reportage. It will form part of the Sheffield Phoenix Apocalypse and Popular Culture Series which is being produced in association with the Hope Centre for Millennialism Studies at Liverpool Hope University.

The volume will explore the intersection of apocalyptic and prophetic archetypes, story patterns, motifs and characters in contemporary televisual storytelling and reportage. Although the volume is specifically focused on essays which analyse the manifestations of these biblical genres in contemporary popular form we are interested in a wide variety of interdisciplinary perspectives that draw upon the resources of cultural studies, screen studies, journalism and media studies, sociology, political science, religious studies, anthropology, theology and biblical studies.

While a number of collections have explored cinematic representations of the apocalyptic, comparatively little work has been produced on the specifically televisual dimensions of contemporary apocalyptics. This volume aims to begin to map this area. One of the unique approaches of this volume is the decision to survey both television drama as well as news and current affairs. Raymond Williams famously described television production and consumption as "flow" which incorporates a collage of televisual experience ranging through drama, news and advertising. One of the underlying assumptions of this volume is that there are a range of important connections that deserve sustained analysis in the flow between apocalyptic images of the nightly news and apocalyptic scenarios of contemporary TV drama. We are interested in contributions which treat either of these domains separately but particularly welcome essays which seek to draw connections between the dramatic and the documentary. In either case authors should address the current cultural and political context as well as the aesthetic and biblical dimensions of contemporary television productions.

The volume will focus on post 2000 productions although space will be given to important 1990's precursors to the current crop of apocalyptic television series. Consideration will be given to essays which focus on earlier works if the proposal is particularly strong and includes an analysis which draws out connections/contrasts with contemporary productions or issues. Essays which focus on a single series or moment of reportage as well as essays which follow a particular theme across a number of different programs or television genres are both welcome.

The following general areas have been identified as a possible structure for the volume but at this stage it is only indicative and should not be read as precluding other concerns: 1. The monstrous and strange: revelations, visions and supernatural signs 2. The final conflict: good versus evil and apocalyptic violence 3. Remnant communities in apocalyptic times 4. Comings and goings at the end: the raptured and the returned 5. Fate and fatalism in contemporary televisual apocalyptics 6. Prophets and preachers of the end: contemporary jeremiads

Essays dealing with one or more of the following television series are particularly welcome but again it is an indicative rather than a prescriptive list:
- 24
- Angel
- Babylon Five
- Battlestar Galatica
- Buffy
- Carnivale
- Jericho
- Lost
- Millenium
- Revelations
- Supernatural
- Star Trek
- The 4400
- The Second Coming
- Twin Peaks
- X Files

Essays dealing with one or more or of the following aspects of contemporary television news reportage are also particularly welcome but again the list is indicative only:

- New of wars and rumours of war: apocalyptic nightly news
- Journalistic jeremiads
- Reporting of Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters
- Reporting environmental crisis
- Televising terror: live broadcast journalism after September 11
- Routine television news values and the apocaplyptic
- Reporting from the developing world: othering the apocalypse

Timeline

Email proposals should be sent to the editor (marcuso@uow.edu.au) by 5 May 2008. Proposals should include a chapter abstract of up to 500 words and a brief biographical note that details the author's academic affiliations and relevant publication history. Where possible copies of previously published articles in the area or thesis chapters should also be included. Confirmation of acceptance should be finalised by early August 2008 and initial drafts of chapters will be expected by March 2009 with a publication date of late 2009. Final contributions should range between 6,000 - 10,000 words with more space applying to those who take a broad comparative approach.

Preliminary email enquiries and/or early proposals to the editor are welcome and encouraged.

Marcus O'Donnell
School of Journalism and Creative Writing
University of Wollongong
marcuso@uow.edu.au

Apocalypse and Popular Culture Series is a sub-series of the Sheffield Phoenix Bible and Society series. As such, the focus of each volume is on the ways in which Biblical apocalyptic texts, themes and dramatis personae are drawn upon, transformed and consumed within aspects of popular culture. Five volumes are currently under development dealing with film, television, cyberculture, music and literary/graphic texts. The series is being produced in association with the Hope Centre for Millennialism Studies at Liverpool Hope University under the general editorship of the centre's director Dr John Walliss.

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19. CfP: 'Multiculturalisms and the Arts' - Aug 29-30 2008, U of Turku, Finland (due May 15)

The concept of multiculturalism has acquired many different (even opposite) meanings in diverse contexts since its inception in the wake of the social movements of the 1960s. Multifarious concepts of multiculturalism are reflected, reproduced or questioned in literature, music, the visual arts, and the media. The purpose of this conference is to analyze different forms of multiculturalisms and their representations. Workshop presentations will also address multiculturalisms in the Nordic countries.

Confirmed keynote speakers:

Anne-Marie Fortier, Lancaster University
Jocelyne Guilbault, University of California, Berkeley
David Leiwei Li, University of Oregon
Maria Roth-Lauret, Sussex University

Possible paper topics for twenty-minute presentations include (but are not limited to) the following:

- representations of multiculturalisms
- multiculturalisms in the arts
- multiculturalisms and the media
- gender, sexuality and multiculturalisms
- aesthetics, genre and multiculturalisms
- multiculturalisms in the Nordic countries

Abstracts in English of no more than 250 words should be received by the Conference Secretary, Outi Hakola (outi.hakola@utu.fi) by May 15, 2008. Acceptance messages will be sent by the end of May 2008.

The conference is being organized by the School of Art Studies (Art History, Comparative Literature, Finnish Literature, Media Studies, Musicology and Women's Studies), the International Institute for Popular Culture at the University of Turku, and the Department of Musicology, Åbo Akademi University.

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20. CfP: 'The Point of Feminism' - Sept 12 2008, U of Reading, UK (due May 16)

An interdisciplinary one-day conference looking at issues relating to feminism and media scholarship

University of Reading
12 September 2008

The publicized closure of 'Women's Studies' departments at an institutional level coupled with 'post' feminist discourses and the perceived irrelevance of feminism in neo-liberal societies, all indicate the social and political need to (re)visit feminisms. The aim of the conference is to reach a better understanding of issues facing scholars of media, and to situate these issues within a broader historical, institutional, political, social and cultural context. We are inviting proposals for an interdisciplinary (film, new/media, cultural, and communications studies) one-day conference at the University of Reading. The day will take the form of round table discussions and workshops chaired by established feminist scholars with opening and closing plenaries by

Sue Thornham (University of Sussex)
Maureen McNeill (University of Lancaster)
Christine Geraghty (University of Glasgow).

We are proposing to have workshops organised around (but not restricted to) the following strands:

* Institution
* Methodology
* Pedagogy
* Discursive Issues
* Definition
* Practice
* Empirical Matters

Proposals for 5 to 10 minute presentations should discuss the personal and/or political relationships of feminism with these themes. We will give particular consideration to proposals that critically reflect on research or teaching experience rather than straightforwardly present research outcomes. We are particularly interested in proposals by early career researchers and postgraduate students. The presentations should be reflective of research experience or practice and discuss how feminist methodology and theory, questions revolving around gender, or other feminist issues relate to your experience. The outcomes of the day will be disseminated through publication.

Deadline for sending us your proposals is 16 May 2008.

The day is organised by Helen Thornham (University of Bristol), Heather Sutherland (University of Reading) and Elke Weissmann (University of Reading).

For further information or to send your proposal for a 5-10 minute contribution, please contact:

Heather Sutherland: h.a.sutherland@reading.ac.uk
Elke Weissmann: e.weissmann@reading.ac.uk

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21. CfP: 'The Buried Treasures Project' - Sept 27 2008, Royal Holloway, U of London, UK (due May 31)

A ONE-DAY SYMPOSIUM

to be held at Royal Holloway, University of London on

SEPTEMBER 27 2008

Keynote Speakers Tracy C. Davis and Jacky Bratton

Through several notable cataloguing and digitisation projects funded over the last few years by the AHRC, a wealth of Victorian performance texts has become available for study. New insights, new discoveries, new approaches to the repertoire are beginning to roll out. This one-day meeting will celebrate and add to that work.

The meeting is the culmination of the AHRC/RHUL/British Library project which has been cataloguing the Lord Chamberlain's plays 1852-1863. Our work is already beginning to be available through the British Library Manuscript Catalogue; its most remarkable feature is the thorough key-wording of the plays, which makes them interesting and accessible for many different disciplines.

The keywords, the catalogue itself and several e-editions of interesting texts that have been discovered are all accessible through the home page of the project:

http://www.rhul.ac.uk/Drama/research/chamberlains-plays/links.html

20-minute papers are invited from historians of all kinds that focus upon the insights to be gained about the mid-Victorians from the play-texts of the period, especially those that have become more accessible as a result this and the other initiatives.

Prospective speakers should send a 300-word abstract of their proposed contribution to

j.bratton@rhul.ac.uk by May 31st 2008.

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22. CfP: 'Niet Normal: Difference on Display' - Publication 2009, (due June 1)

To be published in March 2009, NAI Publishers, on the occasion of the exhibition Niet Normaal ? Difference on Display, Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam.
Editors: Ine Gevers, Maaike Bleeker, Miriam van Rijsingen and Marjan Slob

Theme of the Exhibition

The exhibition Niet Normaal ? Difference on Display reveals how normal it is to be different. In order to assess others we often adopt a point of reference that is based on unspoken assumptions: the norm. Artists, filmmakers and other producers will call into question how norms and difference function in contemporary society. How we construct normality is examined in the context of today's culture of perfectibility, consumerism and the interdependence of humans and intelligent technology. Niet Normaal ? Difference on Display offers an alternative to a normative way of looking at the world and ourselves with the purpose of making the positive aspects of difference visible.

Theme of the Publication

A collection of essays will be published in conjunction with the exhibition. Central to this publication is the disability perspective, the point of view that also informs the curatorial strategies of the exhibition. Crucial to disability studies, the youngest branch of cultural studies, is an alternative definition of disability. Disability studies rejects the traditional medical model of disability, where disability and chronic illness are fixed and individualised conditions, and has developed an alternative social model for understanding disability. Recent versions of this theory no longer hold tightly to a strict either/or account of disability. Social model thinking acknowledges the importance of embodied experience, but an emphasis on disability as a social construct is crucial to its understanding. Disability is seen as a difference that can be 'made' and 'unmade' in terms of relevance in ever-changing relations and contexts.

Central question

The central focus of the publication is: what can we gain from the disability perspective? How can it enrich the social realm, adding lived (dis)abled experience to important issues such as norm & difference, self & strange, invisibility & recognition without enforcing the other to become the same? How can concrete and embodied experiences bring about productive confrontations and enable us to move beyond fixations on difference and identity politics?

Situated and concrete

We invite contributions that follow a bottom-up argumentation, informed by situated practices and which analyse concrete objects of study (whether science fiction films, the daily negotiation of blood sugar levels, the complex shifting of subject and object status as doctor/patient, or personal encounters with numerous databases and techniques that presume to control bodies which are essentially nongovernmental). The areas in which disability perspectives can make a difference are numerous. To pick just a few examples from many possibilities: learning from 'other' bodies how to survive in disabling environments; the inexplicable link between pain and empathy; production of alternative esthetics in a world where perfection is the norm; reconsidering the definition of what it is that makes us human within a world governed by normalizing technologies; challenging the ideology of autonomy and free will through the lived notion of interdependancy and messy day to day reality; experiencing the limits and effects of the human-technology relationship (or how technology adapts to humans and vice versa); becoming (new) agents in an information-overloaded and 'crashed' symbolic order; precarious life and open source communities revealing deficits of democracy and at the same time offering new tactics for survival; why asymmetrical relationships matter and how they guide us to touch across difference.

Practicalities

We would like to invite you to submit a paper of approximately 3500 words. Papers will be read by the editorial board noted above. If accepted, we will contact you, make editorial suggestions and make the usual agreements.

Deadlines

- The deadline for submitting a paper proposal of 350 words is June 1, 2008
- The deadline to submit your paper is September 1, 2008
- The final deadline for edited and corrected submissions is October 15, 2008
- For questions please email Ine Gevers or Marjan Slob

Biographies

Ine Gevers www.inegevers.net
Maaike Bleeker www2.hum.uu.nl
Miriam van Rijsingen www.hum.uva.nl
Marjan Slob www.marjanslob.nl

Contact
Ine Gevers: Ine.gevers@wanadoo.nl
Marjan Slob: info@marjanslob.nl

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23. CfP: 'Hair' - Publication (due June 9)

The first book in the TRUNK series

Editors: Suzanne Boccalatte (artworks) & Meredith Jones (writing)

To be published by Boccalatte Pty Ltd

TRUNK books will be a series of small, corporeal, personal, and sensual books. They are intended to be beautiful, coveted objects filled with fascinating content, much like an old trunk in an attic. These collectable volumes will be consumable and engrossing as a whole, yet filled with short pieces so that each book can also be flipped through or dipped into at random. Each will explore a part of the human body through writing, art, and photography. There will be interviews, essays, fiction, photo essays, poems, and art works addressing multifarious dimensions of the theme. The series is aimed at an intelligent, engaged audience interested in both "high" and popular culture and is intended to have wide appeal.

Our first volume will be about hair. Hair has deep cultural and social significance (is it the only body part that can boast a dedicated musical?). Hair grows on all mammals, but the particular configuration of short vellus hair on the body and long terminal hair on the scalp is found only on humans. We seek writing and art that explores the fascinating cultural, historical, religious and social aspects of this evolutionary ambiguous outgrowth of protein. Submissions must be accessible, curious, entertaining and stimulating. Art and photography can be of any size; writing should be 1500 words or less.

Often, it is an absence of hair or a hiding of hair that is culturally or medically significant: thus we encourage fiction, essays, and interviews about alopecia, male-pattern baldness, temporary hair loss caused by chemotherapy, hair transplants, and Muslim, Jewish and Sikh traditions of covering hair.

Hairy stories about fashion, personal expression, religion, cultural confluences, and social status will be most welcome. Perhaps you would like to contribute a photo-essay of famous combovers, or a more academic piece about hair extensions and the global hair trade? Or you might consider Goth hair, henna, hairdresser training, braiding, or hair dying.

Facial hair and body hair must not be forgotten: we will welcome work that addresses body hair removal, the "Brazilian", changing 20th Century attitudes to women's leg hair, bearded ladies, men's facial hair (the goatee, the beard, mutton-chops), Freda Kahlo's eyebrows, and the moustache.

This hairy collection may also include visual or written pieces about wigs, going grey, androgyny, the beehive, locks of hair kept as mementoes, collections of celebrity hair, the blonde recessive gene, Medusa's hair and its symbology, and the story of Rapunzel.

Submissions are due 9 June 2008

Contacts:

Dr Meredith Jones (writing editor)
meredith.jones@uts.edu.au

Suzanne Boccalatte (visuals editor)
suzanne@boccalatte.com

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24. CfP: 'Bodies on Display' - Nov 7-8 2008, McCord Museum, Montreal, Canada (due June 13)

A two-day colloquium organized by the McCord Museum of Canadian History in collaboration with the Costume Society of America, Northeastern Region in conjunction with the McCord Museum exhibition 'Reveal or Conceal?'

Fashion is inextricably linked to the bodies that wear it. Bodies give shape and meaning to clothing, while dress makes bodies social and fashionable (or unfashionable). How do we address the body in researching and interpreting the history of dress and fashion? How do we address its absence in studying the material culture of clothing?

In the light of the growing scholarly interest in addressing the body in many academic disciplines, this colloquium aims to foster a dialogue among those in the academic setting who study the body as it relates to dress and fashion, and dress as an embodied practice, with those who approach it from the museum, material culture, living history, and design perspectives.

Themes:
Abstracts for papers are sought on the following themes, in historic or contemporary, Western or non-Western perspectives. Research incorporating or intersecting with material culture is encouraged.

Uncovering modesty: Issues in the historical and contemporary perceptions of acceptable body covering, regulating dress and modesty, the interplay between modesty and eroticism in dress.

Shifting standards: Key changes in constructions of physical comfort in dress, notions of public and private in fashion and the body, and gendering and the dressed body.

Fashionable immodesty: The power of the partially dressed body, marketing the body, readdressing theories such as the "shifting erogenous zone"

Wearing the body: methods of shaping the body from corsetry to fitness, embellishment and modifications of the exposed body, issues surrounding appropriate public presentation of the body.

Putting bodies on display: aspects of museum or living history presentation of dressed bodies, such as the creation of mannequins and supports for bodies, clothing for bodies to be displayed in unusual ways. Practical demonstrations are welcome.

Languages:
English and French

Submission of Abstracts:
Abstracts for papers should not exceed 600 words in length and should be sent via e-mail to symposium@mccord.mcgill.ca with a short biography for use in the program or publicity (about 200 words). A separate page must indicate the authors' names, addresses, telephone numbers, fax numbers, and email addresses, and to whom all communications should be directed. Students (Masters and PhD) are encouraged to submit, and should also indicate their degree status and school and program in which they are enrolled.

All contributions must be received no later than June 13, 2008.

Notices of acceptance will be sent out by July 11, 2008. Speakers will not pay registration fees at the colloquium.

http://http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/activities/colloquia/ <http://http//www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/activities/colloquia/>

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25. CfP: 'Theatre, Performance and Philosophy' Working Group - TaPRA, Sept 3-5 2008, U of Leeds, UK (due June 30)

The Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA, www.tapra.org), will hold its 4th Annual Conference at the University of Leeds from September 3-5, 2008.

The TaPRA Theatre, Performance and Philosophy Working Group wouldlike to invite proposals for papers for this conference. Please sendabstracts with a brief biographical note to the convenors, ProfessorDaniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe dmeyerdinkgrafe@lincoln.ac.uk or Dr Dan WattD.P.Watt@lboro.ac.uk by the deadline of 30 June 2008.

Theatre Performance and Philosophy: Mission Statement
Ever since Aristotle's Poetics in the West, and Natyashastra in what is now South Asia, philosophy has played a major role in relation totheatre, both in explaining the phenomena associated with theatre andin influencing theatre practice and theory. Besides examining the oftenoverlooked historical links between philosophy and theatre in the worksand plays of given thinkers like Hegel and Sartre, of particularinterest to the TaPRA Theatre, Performance and Philosophy working groupwill be the use of theatrical metaphors in philosophy and the notion ofthe "performative" and performance, from Austin's How To Do Things withWords to Derrida's "Signature, Event, Context". The radicaltransformations of philosophy undertaken by thinkers such as Nietzsche,Lyotard, Deleuze, Bataille, Debord, and Baudrillard offer philosophyitself as a theatre in which its poetic aspect is asserted asirreducible to any political or social agenda that may seek to defineit. In examining the links between recent philosophical enquiry andtheatre and performance this working group will explore the potentialpractical and theoretical implications of such a turn.

Working Methods
The TPP working group will meet annually at TaPRA conference andmaintain a lively debate in between through an email list and researchpaper presentations at both Lincoln and Loughborough. An outlet forpublications exists for appropriate titles, including conferenceproceedings, in the Rodopi series Consciousness, Literature and theArts, for which TPP co-convenor Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe serves asgeneral editor, as well as through the refereed web journal at http://blackboard.lincoln.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/users/dmeyerdinkgrafe/index.htm

Dr Daniel Watt
Lecturer in English and Drama
Department of English and Drama
Loughborough University
D.P.Watt@lboro.ac.uk

Professor Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe
Lincoln School of Performing Arts
University of Lincoln
Email: dmeyerdinkgrafe@lincoln.ac.uk

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26. CfP: 'Wartime Shakespeare in a Global Context' - Sept 19-21 2009, U of Ottawa, Canada (due Nov 1)

Fought on every continent except Antarctica, the Second World War offers a unique, temporally limited but geographically inclusive period in which to analyse and probe the role and significance of the theatre in times of extreme social duress. As the most frequently performed and translated playwright in the world, Shakespeare is arguably one of the most useful touchstones for examining a range of issues and questions brought to the fore during wartime which this international conference -- coinciding with the 70th anniversary of the declaration of war --- aims to address:

What can the classics and, more broadly, theatre offer people suffering under the horrific conditions of war? How does culture (both as an anthropological and as an aesthetic concept) change in wartime? Are some aesthetic genres and modes more conducive than others in such a period? How effective is the imposition from "above" of aesthetic criteria or of particular works? How do ordinarily benign artistic productions suddenly become usable, even necessary, as political propaganda? How are claims about the universality of authors revised or revisited in wartime when special pressures and demands are placed on literary and dramatic work? How are issues of character and poetic language dealt with in circumstances which require collective, not individualistic, thought? What kind of relationship develops between "world classics" and indigenous canons of theatre and literature in wartime? How do issues of gender, class, or political formation play into these debates? Post-colonialism? Translation? Adaptation? How do terms like "high" and "low" art function in wartime? In periods of post-war reconstruction? Where does the issue of globalization fit? Do answers to any of these questions about the Second World War still hold true today?

To date, the role of the theatre during the Second World War has neither been carefully documented nor subjected to a thorough analysis, despite the fact that from the very beginning of the war live theatrical performance was identified as contributing in a central way to the war effort. Shakespeare's stock was low in 1939; yet, by war's end, Shakespeare became a dominant cultural force that both ignited an explosion--still unabated--of scholarship, professional organizations, Shakespeare festivals, and popular cultural uses, and that marked a major shift in cultural practices.

Suggested topics/sessions:
1. Shakespeare, canon, and the Second World War
psychological warfare
Shakespeare, high and low literature and theatre representation, gender, power, and war Shakespeare's characters Shakespeare and value Shakespeare and translation/ adaptation (canons of translated drama, adaptation as reinterpretation) comedy, satire, and war Shakespeare in theatre and other media (radio, film, music, ballet, opera)

2.Shakespeare and "national" repertoires during the Second World War Theatre, national identity, cultural heritage the national and the "foreign" Shakespeare and colonialism/post-colonialism theatre and collectivity/collectivities canons of wartime theatre "our" and "their" uses of theatre: Allied versus Axis use of theatre neutral countries and their use of Shakespeare regional vs "national" theatre Shakespeare and popular culture

3. Shakespeare, Canada, and the world during the Second World War theatre on the home front theatre in Quebec theatre and education heatre and women alternative theatres theatre and children Shakespeare and reading groups Theatre and persecuted or interned groups

4. Shakespeare at the front and in captivity during the Second World War theatre at the front theatre and the military shipboard theatre touring companies theatre in the camps (internment, labour, prisoner of war, and displaced persons') theatre in occupied territories theater and exile

5. Shakespeare at war today
the tasks of theatre
changing uses of theatre under new conditions
the view from above: ideology, propaganda, and theatre
theatre and political formation
theatre and collaboration
theatre and propaganda
national and other mythologies
shaping audience response
theatre as cultural mediation
theatre and suffering
theatre and affect
theatre, trauma, memory

The Organizing Committee invites papers from scholars of all relevant disciplines - such as Theatre, English, History, Language and Literature Programs, Cultural Studies, Communication, Sociology and Anthropology, Political Science, Gender and Women's Studies, Philosophy, Psychology - as well as from theatre practitioners, and especially encourages papers that focus on theatre and Shakespeare in the Second World War while approaching this topic in a comparative and interdisciplinary way.

A 250 word abstract of proposed papers, along with a brief curriculum vitae, must be submitted electronically (preferably in Word or Rich Text format) by 1 November 2008 either in English or in French to the Organizing Committee care of Professor Irene (Irena) Makaryk at makaryk@uottawa.ca . Selected conference papers will be published in a special volume.

Pending a successful grant application, limited funding will be available for graduate students.

The Organizing Committee:
Irene (Irena) R. Makaryk, Chair of the Organizing Committee, Department of English Yana Meerzon, Département de théâtre/Department of Theatre Tibor Egervari, Département de theatre/Department of Theatre Jeff Keshen, Département d'histoire/Department of History Annie Brisset, École de traduction et d' interprétation/Department of Translation and Interpretation Marissa McHugh, graduate student, Department of English

The University of Ottawa, Canada's oldest bilingual university, is located in the heart of the national Capital, within walking distance of historic Parliament Hill, the Rideau Canal (a World Heritage Site), the National Gallery of Art, and the busy Byward market, and within a few minutes' drive of the beautiful wooded hills of Gatineau, Quebec. Details about the city may be found at http://www.ottawa.com <http://www.ottawa.com/> and about the university at www.uottawa.ca.

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27. CfP: 'Writing Encounters within Performance and Pedagogical Practice' - Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, York St John U, UK (due Nov 21)

Calling upon lecturers, researchers and practitioners in the field of performance who encounter writing within their work. This call for papers for the Journal of Writing in Creative Practice invites submissions from practitioners, lecturers and theorists whose processes of creativity do not necessarily begin with text. We invite submissions that explore the following questions:

- When and where does writing take place within your work - in a collaborative making context (devised performance) - in a live art, performance art or in a visual performance context? What is the role of writing across these contexts?

- Is writing part of the performance itself (writing live)? If this is the case what function does it serve?

- What epistemological assumptions are made about the role of writing in/about/for performance?

- In what ways do performers borrow, reference, steal or recycle writing forms from other disciplinary contexts?

- In what ways do we teach performance students about the role of writing in performance?

- When does the body 'write' the space and how does the language of making become an act of writing?

- What pedagogies might we adopt to explore the role of text in the performance space?

- What genres of writing are suited to the study of performance?

This edition will be co-edited by Dr Susan Orr and Claire Hind from the Faculty of Arts at York St John University.

If you are interested in submitting a paper please see:

http://attainable-utopias.org/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=JournalWritingCreativePractice

To submit a paper please email the editors at writingpadjournal@gmail.com

The deadline for submission is the 21 November 2008

Writing Encounters Symposium

This issue of the journal will be informed by the symposium Writing Encounters, an international symposium of writing and performance for artists, writers, critics and academics which will take place at York St John University 11th - 14th September 2008.

For information on this symposium email: writingencounters@thespacebetweenwords.org or sign up for more information at www.thespacebetweenwords.org

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28. CfP: 'Earth Matters on Stage' - Ecodrama Playwrights Festival & Symposium, May 21-31, 2009, U of Oregon, US (due Jan 1 2009)

Call for Symposium Papers and Proposals

"Ecological victory will require a transvaluation so profound as to be nearly unimaginable at present. And in this the arts and humanities - including the theater - must play a role." -Una Chaudhuri

Indeed ecology is at the heart of burgeoning creativity and interdisciplinary scholarship across the arts and humanities. This Symposium, together with the concurrent Ecodrama Festival, invites artists, scholars and activists to share their work, ideas, and passions with one another and with the larger community who attend the Festival.

We welcome creative and innovative proposals for workshops, round-tables, panels, working sessions, installations, or participatory community gatherings that explore, examine, challenge, articulate, or nourish the possibilities of theatre's response to the environmental crisis in particular, and our ecological situatedness in general.

The format is wide-open and we will schedule and shape the Symposium around the types of proposals received and selected. We encourage proposals that go beyond a recitation of ideas or positions, and instead bring presenters and participants together as they engage the driving question of how theatre has or might function as part of our multiple reciprocal relationships within ecological communities.

Some possible topics for exploration include: land and body in performance; representation of/and environmental justice; green theatre production; old cultural narratives/new stories; indigenous performance; community-based performance/ecological communities; sensing place/staging place; devising from ecology; the ecologies of theatrical form and/or space; animal representation; and application of ecocriticism to plays and performance.

Please send by email or snail mail, a one-page proposal and/or abstract by January 1, 2009 to:

Earth Matters ~ Ecodrama Symposium 2009
Theresa May, Director
ecodrama@uoregon.edu

Theater Arts, VIL 216, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403

Please include:
- Type of session & title;
- Your preferred type of space (classroom, theatre, studio, or outdoors);
- Time-length (60 min; 90 min; 2+ hours; half-day);
- Ideal or maximum number of participants;
- Short bio/s.

We encourage proposals that include more than one presenter; however, single person proposals are accepted and will be combined with others as themes and formats allow.

Our website will be up soon! We look forward to your Proposal! Questions

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29. Performance, Cross-Cultural Dialogue and Coexistence, April 2-5 2008, U of Exeter, UK

The schedule for Exeter University's Applied Drama/Theatre conference on Performance, Cross-Cultural Dialogue and Coexistence (April 2-5, 2008) has been finalised and all information is available via the website: http://www.spa.ex.ac.uk/drama/appliedconf/welcome.shtml

Dr Kerrie Schaefer
Senior Lecturer
Department of Drama
School of Arts, Languages and Literatures
University of Exeter

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FORTHCOMING CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS.

29. Performance, Cross-Cultural Dialogue and Coexistence, April 2-5 2008, U of Exeter, UK

Dr Kerrie Schaefer
Senior Lecturer
Department of Drama
School of Arts, Languages and Literatures
University of Exeter

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30. Theatre: Crossroads of the Humanities, April 10-12 2008, Northwestern U, US

Northwestern University announces our second conference in a series addressing methodological challenges of interdisciplinary theatre scholarship. Northwestern's doctoral program in Theatre and Drama is a leader in research and pedagogy that bridges disciplinary bounds. For our upcoming conference, "Theatre: Crossroads of the Humanities," we will discuss innovative interdisciplinary work in-progress and encourage discussion that probes the relationship between theatre, dance, performance studies, and other disciplines.

In particular we ask:
* Where does our research place theatre, dance, or performance studies on a map of the Humanities?
* Do interdisciplinary projects effect established disciplines?
* How does the practice of theatre, dance, or performance provide for interdisciplinary scholarship?
* How does interdisciplinary scholarship reconfigure the places of theatre events and theatre events as places?

The conference begins with a day of workshops lead by Marvin Carlson, Baz Kershaw, and Rebecca Schneider in collaboration with doctoral students nominated to attend the conference with them. The following two days will feature talks by national and international leaders in interdisciplinary research, including Kate Bosher, Marvin Carlson, Tracy C. Davis, Nadine George-Graves, Baz Kershaw, Deborah Paredez, Daniel O'Quinn, Alice Rayner, Rebecca Schneider, Bruce Smith, and Will West. And in a unique format, scholars from throughout Northwestern's celebrated humanities departments will respond to each talk, followed by remarks by our doctoral students. When: April 10 - 12, 2008 Where: Northwestern University Contact s