cfp.english.upenn.edu

Call for Papers

Performance, Space, and Public Memory in the Americas

American Studies Association Annual Meeting
October 20-23, 2011
Baltimore, Maryland

This session seeks interdisciplinary papers that explore the role of performance in creating and disseminating public memory in the Americas. Some questions we hope to address include: How is performance utilized by those in power to construct memory? How can performance destabilize historical narrative? How is political and/or performative speech used in memorial practices? How does embodiment create, disseminate, sustain or challenge public memory? How are space and performance colonized for memorial use?

The term “performance” ought to be interpreted widely; some possible topics include:
*documentary theatre and performance
*performance and legacies of slavery
*monuments and spatial memorialization
*haunting and cultural memory
*tourist performance
*living history museums
*embodied space and memory
*class/race/ethnicity/gender and memorial performance
*psychology, memory, and performance
*cognitive science and memory
*trauma and testimony
*memorializing war and terrorism
*reenactments and first-person interpretation

Inquiries and submissions from all fields of study are welcome.
This session will be in either a “talk” or dialogue format.

Deadline for submission of abstracts: January 10, 2011

Please include with your abstract:

Name and affiliation
Email address
Brief biography
Telephone number
A/V requirements

Direct all proposals and inquiries to Lindsay Adamson Livingston, adamson.livingston@gmail.com