Closed Session: seminar participants only
Hybrid Session
Location: Small Rehearsal Studio, Dalhousie Arts Centre
Co-Convenors: Jenn Boulay and Signy Lynch
Participants: Kat Germain, Caroline Klimek, Shannon Hughes, Daniella Vitinski Mooney, Alejandra Nunez, Gabriela Petrov, Laine Zizman Newman
Rationale:
This seminar builds off our seminar at last year’s conference: “Performing Complaint: Working on theatre and performance institutions,” which drew inspiration from Sara Ahmed’s Complaint! inviting participants from a wide range of backgrounds to share responses that engage with the theme of complaint as it relates to effecting change in Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies (DTPS) departments and institutions.
Our proposal for this year, “Burning it All Down” seeks to incorporate the principles of disability justice in order to think towards structural change. In an article for the journal Knots, Jenn Boulay observed of the conditions in DTPS departments in Canada, “Collectively, the student body of racialized students, disabled students, multiply marginalized students, and our allies do not feel that the academic environment is safe, inclusive, or accessible. Our efforts to voice our concerns have led us to work towards collective liberation, as the systemic issues that exist within both academic and non-academic arts institutions have yet to be fully recognized and fully acknowledged by those who have the power to implement change and eradicate systemic oppression” (Boulay 73).
Our session this year picks up this observation and seeks to make space and offer a trusting space for participants (in particular students, grad students, recent post grads, and precariously employed artists/scholars/teachers) to reflect on and converse about this work towards collective liberation. We aim to use the principles of disability justice, defined by the Sins Invalid collective, as “Intersectionality, Leadership of those Most Impacted, Anti-Capitalist Politics, Cross-Movement Solidarity, Recognizing Wholeness, Sustainability, Commitment to Cross-Disability Solidarity, Interdependence, Collective Access, and Collective Liberation” (“10 Principles”) (principles that we also invite the Association and its members to ground themselves in to work to create a trusting environment) to cultivate a forum for critical reflection and knowledge-sharing towards both scholarly and practical ends.
The seminar session will be open to participants only due to the sensitive nature of some of the responses we anticipate. Seminar participants will share short written or pre-recorded video reflections prior to the conference session. Each reflection will focus on a structural issue
that the individual would like to address with the group. During the three hour session, participants will each be given 5-10 minutes to summarize their contributions, followed by a moderated group discussion on ways to manage and respond to each, which may involve brainstorming possible courses of action and how they intersect with disability justice principles.
Works Cited:
“10 Principles of Disability Justice” Sins Invalid, sinsinvalid.org/blog/10-principles-of-disability-justice
Ahmed, Sara. Complaint!. Duke UP, 2021.
Boulay, Jenn. “The World is On Fire: Disability Justice is my Strength.” Knots: An Undergraduate Journal of Disability Studies, vol. 6, no.1, 2021, pp. 68-75.
Bios of Organizers:
Jenn Boulay: Jenn is an emerging interdisciplinary performance artist/creator, playwright, performer, singer-songwriter, musician, theatre reviewer, and scholar. She holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies. She is currently pursuing a graduate diploma in Communication Studies at Concordia University. Her current research project examines the gaps/absence of disability theatre (practice and scholarship) in Eastern Canada, focusing on Québec and Atlantic Canada, compared to Western Canada. Jenn’s current research interests include, intersectional identity politics (visibility, and non-visibility), disability studies/theatre, theatre, theatrical clown and finding ways of how to make contemporary theatre more accessible to performers and audiences. You can find her creative and academic work published in Feminist Space Camp Magazine, Knots: An
Undergraduate Journal of Disability Studies (Knots), Theatre Research in Canada (TRiC), Canadian Theatre Review (CTR), and UC Magazine. She is an editor of the forthcoming issue of Knots.
Signy Lynch: Signy Lynch is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Universty of Toronto Mississauga. In 2021, she defended her PhD dissertation in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University, where her research was awarded the Barbara Godard Prize for Best Dissertation in Canadian Studies and the prestigious Governor General’s Gold Medal. Her current research interests include intercultural, intermedial, and participatory theatres (particularly in Canada), audience research, and theatre criticism. She has written articles for publications including Theatre Research in Canada, Contemporary Theatre Review, and Canadian Theatre Review. She also works as a critical dramaturg to reimagine theatre criticism practices. She is co-editor of Canadian Theatre Review volume 186 “Theatre After the
Explosion” (2021), co-chair of Cahoots Theatre’s board of directors, and co-director of the Centre for Spectatorship and Audience Research (Queen’s University).