Call for papers
Dance Studies Association 2018 Conference
University of Malta (Valletta, Malta)
5-8 July 2018
The Dance Studies Association invites proposals for papers, panels, roundtable discussions, lecture-demonstrations, movement workshops, dance works using outdoor or indoor sites, and screendances that address our theme, “Contra: Dance & Conflict.”
While often used as a metaphor for peace, the reality of dancing, dance-making, and scholarship addressing dance is often one of conflict. Yet, as a venue for interaction, friction, and potential energy, conflict can be as creative as it is destructive. We seek scholars, dancers and other performing artists, choreographers, performance-based activists, and arts administrators and organizers to address questions including:
- How has dance served as a vehicle for reconciliation?
- How has choreography represented, exposed, or challenged practices of violence and war?
- How has dance staged actions of resistance, choreographies of protest, or resolution of conflicts?
- What are conflict management techniques within group derived choreography? How has conflict been productive in dance devising? How might these be applied to clashes outside the studio?
- What are the conflicts within dance studies? Are there means of reconciling or using these conflicts productively that are informed by dance practice?
- What are the interventions of choreographic thinking, performing, and dance therapy within group and individual counseling discourses?
- What are choreographies, techniques, or individual accomplishments that might not have been actualized had it not been for substantial conflict? How might this unique process be theorized?
- How is conflict at work in choreographies broadly considered, such as relations among and antagonisms between bodies in collectives and political movements, protests, and physical dynamics of democracies?
Abstracts for Proposals are to be submitted via proposals.sdhscordconference.org by 4 December 2017. Application information for graduate student awards, debut panels, and travel support, as well as full conference proposal guidelines will be available on the conference website on October 30, 2017: http://sdhscordconference.org/2018-DSA-Conference
Please email info@cordance.org with any questions.
Program Committee
Takiyah Nur Amin, Davidson College
Karima W. Borni, Middlebury College
Ramsay Burt, De Montfort University Leicester
Jo Butterworth, University of Malta
Yaping Chen, Taipei National University of the Arts
Meiver De la Cruz, Oberlin College
Thomas F. DeFrantz, Duke University
Jens Richard Giersdorf, Marymount Manhattan College
Nicole Haitzinger, University Salzburg
Jasmine Johnson, Brown University
Royona Mitra, Brunel University London
Janet O'Shea, UCLA
Stacey Prickett, University of Roehampton
Danielle Robinson, York University
Malaika Sarco-Thomas, University of Malta
Kin-Yan Szeto, Appalachian State University
Sarah Whatley, Coventry University
Chair: Brandon Shaw, University of Malta
Submission Guidelines
- The abstract submission process is blind review by the Program Committee, and three reviewers score each submission. The Program Committee is unable to provide written feedback on submissions.
- You may submit only one proposal to the Program Committee, and your name may appear on the conference program only once as a presenter (for papers, pre-formed panels, roundtables, lecture-demonstrations, workshops, works). However, you may also serve as a moderator, although not for your own panel, and if invited you may speak on a panel honoring another scholar.
- The keywords denote the main topic or topics with which your presentation aligns or how you would like your research to be categorized. We will use the keywords to 1) match abstracts to Program Committee evaluators based on research expertise and 2) to group presentations within the conference schedule. Examples: tango, identity, kathakali.
- For submitting a roundtable, Click “Roundtable” in the first row of radio buttons. Enter the name of the roundtable and keywords for the roundtable in the “General Information” section. Under the Presenters section, put the abstract for the roundtable under “Author 1” (this will be the contact for the roundtable). Add additional authors for everyone on the roundtable. In Authors 2 and onward, indicate “participant on this roundtable” in the abstract section since you only need to submit one abstract for the roundtable. However, if your individual panelists need or want to include their own presentation titles or abstracts, they can do so but should make it clear that is what is happening.
- In the spirit of building an intellectual and moving community of dance researchers, DSA requires conference participants to deliver their presentations in person. If you live in a region or are in an extenuating circumstance that inhibits your travel, we will consider remote requests on a case-by-case basis. Please submit a proposal through the current online form, and under the technical requirements section, explain your situation and need to present remotely.
- For lecture-demonstrations and workshops, the Program Committee reserves the right to adjust the time requested in order to fit the overall conference schedule. While the Program Committee respects the conception of panel proposals, it reserves the right to judge each submission independently and to coordinate with other paper proposals when and where appropriate.