[UPDATE] CFP on Environmental Performance (abstracts 3/1)

full name / name of organization: 
R. Besel and Jnan Blau - California Polytechnic State University

Call for Chapter Proposals: Collection on Environmental Performance

Human degradation of the environment has been documented by scholars across a range of disciplines: the global temperature of the planet continues to rise, abandoned industrial sites stain once vibrant communities, and questions about the purity of our water and foods linger. In the shadow of these material conditions, many have turned to performance as a means to critique careless consumerism and excessive lifestyles in hope of illustrating alternative ways of living. The World's a Stage: Performance on Behalf of the Environment explores the strengths, limitations, and processes of these environmental performances, a still relatively underexplored area of scholarship. We invite proposals for original essays addressing topics that may include, but are not limited to, the following:

-Mediated performances about nature and/or the environment (e.g., No Impact Man)
-Nature used to enhance and/or detract from musical performances (e.g., outdoor festivals or concerts)
-Animal rights rhetoric (e.g., the television series Whale Wars)
-Critiques with practical suggestions for improving activism (e.g., exploring the strengths and limitations of environmental protests as "image events")
-Evaluations of local case studies from a performative framework (e.g., community responses to "food deserts")
-Environmental representations on "stage" (e.g., Blue Man Group and global climate change)
-Theoretical essays on "environmental performance" or the "performance of nature"

We welcome submissions using methodological approaches from a variety of critical, cultural, performative, (auto)ethnographic, rhetorical, historical, political, and/or theatrical origins. Five chapter proposals have already been accepted and a publisher has already expressed interest in the collection.

Send your abstract (no more than 500 words) and brief bio to Drs. Richard D. Besel (rbesel@calpoly.edu) and Jnan Blau (jablau@calpoly.edu) by March 1, 2011.