ephemer – Journal for Performance and Theater Research

3rd Call for Co-Editors

On Agitation
 

“What kind of understanding of art is it to think art goes out, changes the world, and then everything is fine – or not fine. If that were possible, I have long wondered why politics has not simply moved into art. Why has politics not long since been replaced by art? Then members of parliament would paint their pictures and hang them somewhere on a billboard, I would ride past on my bicycle, and everything would be solved. There would be no more poverty, environmental pollution would disappear, and so on – just because a picture is hanging there. What kind of madness is that.” (Schlingensief 2002; trans. DK)

As early as 1838, the British House of Commons spoke of suppressing “political agitation,” fearing it might unsettle the existing order, disturb institutions, provoke unrest. The term has long circulated in political discourse as a way to describe movements that disturb established institutions – whether in industrial Europe, anti-colonial struggles, or contemporary social movements. Already in this early appearance, the double structure of the term becomes visible: agitation (from Latin) names both an outer movement and an inner disturbance: a stirring of bodies, institutions, affects, and forms of knowledge.

In theatrical and performative contexts, agitation often emerges at the edges of institutions – sometimes by leaving them, sometimes by infiltrating or reconfiguring them. Agitation thus exposes the permeability of structures that insist on their separateness. It blurs boundaries between inside and outside, art and politics, stage and street. It is perhaps no coincidence that, in the interwar period, Andrzej Pronaszko envisioned activist theater together with its inherent ambivalences:

"Theater is agitation. Theater is the advertisement of new truths. The advertisement of new deceptions […] Theater must be the pulse of life, its signpost, its release, its orator. […] Theater must become a machine that shatters equilibrium. […] Theater must spill out into the street, shouting and chattering in all directions. From gates, from rooftops, from balconies, from automobiles." (Pronaszko 1923; trans. DK)

The histories of performance and theater are threaded through with practices of agitation: workers’ theater, agitprop, street theater, protest performance, interventionist art, and community-based practices that emerge far beyond institutional art worlds. From Brecht’s epic theatre to Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s Kamiriithu Community Theatre, from ACT UP’s die-ins to Indigenous protest actions at Standing Rock; agitation appears in multiple forms. The multiplicity of these forms suggests that agitation is not an exception but a recurring impulse which is global in reach, historically persistent, and aesthetically heterogeneous. Agitation reappears wherever performance enters into friction with social and political realities.

For the third issue of ephemer – Journal for Performance and Theater Research, we are seeking co-editors to shape this issue together with us. This means collaboratively curating a constellation of voices – inviting scholars and artists who approach “On Agitation” through diverse theoretical lenses and artistic practices.

Applicants should submit the following documents:
- A reflection/essay (2,000 words) outlining their vision for the issue On Agitation, including key thematic and methodological considerations.
- A brief CV, including a list of the applicant’s four most recent publications (preferably peer-reviewed), a record of the max. five academic presentations given, and the applicant’s current academic position.

Please, check also our information for co-editors on our website:
https://ephemer.kunstuni-linz.at/information-for-co-editors/

Submissions should be sent by June 30, 2026 to 
ephemer.office@kunstuni-linz.at

For further information contact us by email.

About ephemer
ephemer is a multilingual journal committed to cultural and linguistic diversity in academic discourse. To ensure accessibility and intellectual richness, all articles will be published in the language preferred by the author and, where applicable, accompanied by an English translation.

ephemer will be published by Böhlau Verlag in both print and open-access formats. All articles will undergo a rigorous peer-review process, and the editorial team will be supported by an international advisory board.