Do you have a topic that you would like to explore with other performance studies practitioners (artists, scholars, activists, organizers, enthusiasts, etc…) on an international scale?
Do you have a project that you’d like to accomplish with a globally diverse community of other committed individuals?
Is there a broad-based thematic community that you would like to bring together within a set of clear but flexible parameters on a short-, mid-, or longer-term timeframe?
Have you ever considered convening (or co-convening) a PSi Working Group?
Working Groups have long been the robust, pliable spine of Performance Studies international. They provide an ongoing channel for exchange among their members and a network of distinct yet interconnected cells within the ever-changing composition of our organization. Their essential activity during the original Constellate programming at the height of the Covid pandemic made explicit the central role they play in PSi’s health, diversity, and direct public engagement, and their potential for community and impact has never been greater or more necessary.
PSi welcomes proposals, expressions of interest, and exploratory questions from its members towards the creation of new Working Groups (WGs). And we’re now offering new options for conceiving and conducting WGs, allowing for unprecedented elasticity in terms of duration and activity.
• 1 Year: intended for specific, focused, short-term conversations that will benefit from yearlong profile support and dedicated space and time at an annual conference.
• 3 Years: intended for an extended but finite exchange or initiative with a defined plan of activities and (potentially) a predetermined set of objectives/outcomes.
• Ongoing: intended for open-ended exchange and an evolving agenda within a thematically defined sphere of inquiry/activity.
Note: additional formats are also possible and will be considered if proposed; however, we hope this new flexibility provides an option that will serve most interests. It’s also possible that a WG may begin within one format and evolve into another, should its needs and/or interests take it in that direction.
Depending on when the proposal is received, an approved new WG could have an initial introductory meeting at PSi #30 in Fortaleza, Brazil, in December 2025, with an eye towards participating fully in 2026.
If you would like to discuss the possibility of establishing a new WG within PSi, please reach out to the Working Groups Officer, Bruce Barton, at bruce.barton@ucalgary.ca to begin the conversation.
Image from the activities of the Artistic Researh Working Group at PSi#25: ‘Elasticity,’ in Calgary (2019). Photo by Donia Mounsef
bruce.barton