Beyond the Institution: Theatre, Performance, and the University

Graduate students, scholars, and practitioners of theatre and performance in and surrounding the New York City area are pleased to announce a collaboratively-organized conference held October 31 – November 1 2013, which will assemble an inter-university exchange to encourage questions, dialogue, and debate around and between the boundaries of theatre, performance, and academic institutions. It will question institutional borders that separate artistic, scholarly, educational, activist, and civic pursuits, making way for new modes of cooperation and coalition. How can art, theatre, and performance effect the urban space in the wake of social, cultural, and technological transformation? What is the role of the university in the city? Can it serve as a bridge between artistic and civic institutions? How do scholarship and practice interact with the venues, archives, architecture, and living fabric of urban spaces?

In bridging both institutional and theoretical/practical divides, this conference aims to connect diverse communities, to spotlight the concerns and interests of the upcoming generation of scholars and artists, and to consider the viability and future cultural life in, around, and beyond New York City—a region that has undergone massive economic, demographic, and environmental transformations in the past two decades. This will be a chance for graduate students in MA, MFA, PhD, and DFA programs in theatre, performance, and related disciplines to come together in a unique environment at a specific moment in the history of the US university, asking urgent questions about the future of theatre, performance, the university, and the city.

Possible topics could include:
Politics and activism
Performance and protest
Theatre, public space, markets, and real estate
Performance as commodity
The commercial and the avant-garde
Green and interdisciplinary performance venues and architecture
Academe and the performance of legitimacy/prestige
Theory/practice divides in the performing arts
Practice as research, research as practice
The state of the field(s)
Civic institutional development and self-organizing systems
Performative intersections of diverse communities
New media and live performance
Open access spaces and urban free trade
Self and digital publication
Theory and philosophy of performance
The role of the graduate student

Interested participants are encouraged to submit proposals for papers, panels, roundtables, performances, work demonstrations, and/or other innovative platforms that explore institutional construction, potentials, and limits of artistic interaction with the city and the academy. The format of the conference and its sessions is open and will be determined based on the submissions received. Graduate students and emerging artists from diverse institutions, across disciplines, and across the public/private divide are encouraged to apply. Graduate students at tri-state area colleges interested in helping coordinate/co-host the conference are also encouraged to contact the organizers.

Submit letters of proposal (250 words for individual papers; 400 words for panels, roundtables, performances, and innovative platforms) here by April 19, 2013.

~CITYWIDE
a collaboration between graduate students at

Brooklyn College, CUNY

Columbia University

The Graduate Center, CUNY

Hunter College, CUNY

New York University

Princeton University

Yale School of Drama