Location: Zoom Room 1
Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/3874647177?pwd=Jw1g9axPFpvKa8qEe26DCLjGd0ACbW.1
Abstract:
The last 50 years have been formative for Canadian theatre and performance studies and CATR. As we contemplate the next 50, we find ourselves facing multiple crises, both within our field and beyond: the increased precarization of work, the threat of funding cuts and attacks on universities, the rise of the anti-EDI movement and the suppression of academic freedom, global advances in authoritarianism and fascism, and callous responses to genocides and humanitarian emergencies. The convergence of these crises, each sharpening the edges of the others, prompts us to think about a recent change in direction: rather than advancing justice and equity, we find ourselves returning to fights thought to have been won, protecting rights thought to have been gained permanently.
Taking a cue from Vanessa Machado de Oliveira’s Hospicing Modernity, we wonder how we undertake the work of ‘hospicing’ these crises in preparation for something new to emerge. Keeping in mind that social change is never linear, this seminar asks: What is at stake at this particular juncture? What should be preserved and what should be laid to rest? What might the struggles fought over the past 50 years tell us about setbacks in the fight for justice and equity. What kinds of analytic tools do we need today for understanding the current crises so that we can intervene effectively? And how do we address labour distribution and precarious work in our field as we rehearse for change?
Thinking of what we (as TPS scholars) have inherited from the past 50 years and what we want scholars to inherent from us 50 years from now, we invite short, 5-minute reflections that propose paths forward, including speculative exercises towards more just futures as well as concrete actions that we (with our differing positionalities and privileges) can undertake in our own contexts. Participants will present their papers in the first part of the seminar, and the group will collectively brainstorm small actions and coordinated responses we can take to address these issues during the second part of the seminar.
Biographies:
Signy Lynch is an Assistant Professor in English & Drama at the University of Toronto Mississauga (and graduate faculty member at UofT’s Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies). She researches contemporary intercultural, diasporic, and Black theatres in Canada; audience research; and theatre criticism.