Black Theatre Association (BTA)
Call for Papers
Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) 2015 Conference
Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel — Montréal, Québec, Canada
July 30- August 2, 2015

Submissions Deadlines:
• November 1st for complete panel proposals — online through the ATHE homepage (visit http://www.athe.org/ and click on the "Conference" tab.)
• October 18th for individual paper proposals — please email a 200-word abstract to Monica White Ndounou, BTA Conference Planner, at monica.ndounou@tufts.edu.

The Black Theatre Association (BTA), a Focus Group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), invites complete panel proposals and individual abstracts for ATHE's 2015 conference. In light of the conference theme, "Je me souviens (I Remember)," BTA is particularly interested in panels, papers and creative presentations that explore black theatre's engagements with processes of re-membering, forgetting and cultural transmission. The conference site of Montréal (where this provocative political motto evokes controversy) encourages us to interrogate the conference theme in a global context. How might the stage and the institutions that house these stages be transformed to foster and support an empowered remembrance of black cultures, histories and performances? How does the representation of Haitians, Native Americans and various minority groups of people of color in Quebec and throughout Canada encourage remembrance of Diasporic cultures on the world stage? How can institutions in theatre and higher education best support and serve diasporic communities in their quests to remember and reconcile cultural heritage and national identity?

Possible topics include but are not limited to:
• Concepts of memory: rememory, blood memory, emotion-memory, muscle memory, and prosthetic memory, institutional memory, etc.
• Theatre as a vehicle for engaging individual or collective retrospection
• The role of the theatre practitioners and/or scholars in shaping what and how audiences remember
• The role of art, film/video or new technology in solidifying institutional memory
• Historical and contemporary examples of staging Diasporic memories
• Strategies for staging memories of slavery, emancipation, migrations and movements of people of color in Africa and the New World
• Remembering pedagogies of theory and practice
• Staging or dramatizing memoirs, autobiographies, biographies, etc.

Black Theatre Association encourages session formats that go beyond the reading of scholarly papers. We encourage proposals that include short play readings, performance workshops, networking and mentorship activities, or conversations about pedagogy and the academic profession that engage the conference theme.

Proposers must submit all requests for audiovisual needs, conference grants, or guest passes with proposal submission. Please note: ATHE limits all participants to 2 presentations/appearances at each conference.

You can use BTA's new email list and online forums to discuss panel ideas with other scholars and artists and to solicit contributors for panel proposals. To connect with other BTA members and gain access to these tools, please "join" BTA by visiting our web page: http://www.athe.org/group/BTA. Multi-focus session proposals for sessions sponsored by a minimum of two (2) ATHE Focus Groups or Committees must have the approval of all sponsoring Focus Groups and/or Committees prior to proposal submission. Anyone proposing a multi-focus session for ATHE 2015 must contact all the relevant Conference Planners and/or Committee Chairs for their approval, prior to proposal submission. Contact information can be found on ATHE's website: http://www.athe.org/

The Black Theatre Association (BTA) is an organization composed of scholars, graduate students, and theatre artists of differing ages, races, colors, genders, national origins, religious beliefs, shapes, and sizes. Our unified interest in the critical study of Black theatre from a global perspective informs our collective desire to inform and promote the experiences of Black people as expressed in various forms of drama and performance.

Black Theatre Association Officers, 2014-2015
Jonathan Shandell, President/Focus Group Representative
shandelj@arcadia.edu

Monica White Ndounou, Conference Planner
monica.ndounou@tufts.edu

Tabitha Chester, Secretary
chestert@denison.edu

Nicole Hodges Persley, Member-at-Large
hodgespersley@ku.edu

Isaiah Wooden, Member-at-Large
isaiah.wooden@gmail.com

Khalid Long, Graduate Student Representative
longky@umd.edu

Le'Mil Eiland, Graduate Student Representative
lemileiland@gmail.com

Anndretta Lyle Wilson, Graduate Student Representative
anndretta@ucla.edu