The Black Theatre Association (BTA), a focus group of the Association of Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), invites submissions for our upcoming 2026 Summer Conference in Baltimore, MD, from July 22-26, 2026.

Theme: Revival and Rejuvenation

Too many artists, scholars, and educators affiliated with BTA are the targets of politically driven violence. This violence manifests in the form of massive funding cuts, enhanced surveillance, aggressive policing, disinformation campaigns, and anti-Black institutional rage designed to undermine their wellbeing, and in some cases, to end their very lives. Engulfed in fear, rage, disappointment, and disbelief at the state of our political and social world, it can be difficult (damn near impossible) to think or to respond responsibly in ways that enhance and care for self and others. That’s why this year, BTA invites proposals from graduate students as well as new, established, and emerging scholars and artists that focus on practices, theories, and histories of Revival and Rejuvenation. 

ATHE’s 2026 call for proposals, “Activating Imagination in/and Community,” asks us “to think deeply and courageously about the role of theatre and performance in shaping our shared presents and collective futures. It challenges us to contemplate not just what we do, but how and with whom we do it, while recognizing that, in the face of growing political repression and institutional instability, our collaborations—across disciplines, communities, and identities—are simultaneously more vulnerable and vital than ever.”

In the spirit of ATHE’s CFP, BTA invites submissions that engage core questions about theatre performance as a practice of imagination, revival, and rejuvenation. 

• What does theatre performance look like when we center human wellbeing, care, interdependence, and shared labor?

• What practices of mutual support already exist in our communities?

• How are you and other artists, theatre educators, and arts organizations resourcing yourselves? What new practices have you developed? What questions are you struggling to answer? What examples from the past are you drawing upon for inspiration?

• How can we reimagine leadership and decision-making models to reflect principles of human flourishing, equity, accessibility, and solidarity?

• How are you using theatre and performance to restore audiences, participants, and/or communities?

BTA welcomes interactive workshops, rituals, reading groups, book talks, roundtable discussions, and other interactive, restorative performance engagements, as well as individual papers and presentations, related to the history and practice of theatre and performance by people of African descent. We strongly encourage submissions by graduate students and scholar-artists who have never presented at BTA/ATHE. Join us! Through these offerings, we hope to share vital resources, offer respite, and encourage reconnection and revivification to meet our needs now and prepare for the days ahead. 

Please submit a brief description of your session using the ATHE conference portal (https://www.athe.org/page/conference_call). Include your name, contact details, and the names and contact information of all co-presenters. We also ask that you indicate whether you are a BTA member, if this is your ATHE debut, and when you would like to present. We will schedule brief (approx. 15-minute) virtual video interviews with all candidates in the New Year.

NOTE: The ATHE submission portal opens November 5, 2025.

Deadline to Submit: December 12, 2025

Questions? Please contact: 

Omiyẹmi (Artisia) Green,BTA President

avgreen@wm.edu

Lisa Biggs, BTA VP/Conference Planner

lisa_biggs@brown.edu

The purpose of BTA is to promote, actively support, and advance the field of Black Theatre Studies through scholarly research, panels, workshops, performances, and criticism during the ATHE yearly conferences. Our unified interest in the critical study of Black theatre from a global perspective informs our collective desire to promote the experiences of Black people as expressed in various forms of theatre and performance broadly conceived. We recognize Black Theatre as a field that centers on but is not limited to research and critical analysis of theatre and performance created by and about people of African descent. In this spirit, BTA also supports and advocates for Black scholars and artists in all discipline areas of ATHE. BTA initiates scholarly and performance-based programs, academic and administrative outreach, and support programs. BTA dedicates its efforts to the scholarship, creative production, and analysis of research, performance, administration, and pedagogy that concerns scholars and artists of Black Theatre in the United States, Africa, and the African Diaspora.