Citizenship, Conflict, and Performance
University of Ulster at Magee, Derry
June 3-4, 2022
Deadline for submissions: February 28, 2022
Citizenship can be understood and analysed as performative, and part of the performance of everyday life and identity. The conception of the ideal citizen is subject to various boundaries: of race, ethnicity, and gender. The assumed or ideal citizen is commemorated in public statues and plaques, in war memorials and other forms of public display which make evident who is represented and who is not. Yet the performance of citizenship is more multifarious than such representations suggest, and hegemonic imagery is often altered, shifted, even subverted by the everyday practice of living citizens.
As the site of this conference, Derry’s double identity as Derry and Londonderry, on the border between the UK and the Republic of Ireland, the home of the Civil Rights Movement and of the Apprentice Boys lends itself to this exploration of citizenship and performance. Papers are invited that explore the relationship of citizenship and performance in dramatic and performance texts, everyday life, and public events that commemorate or represent social and political events, histories, and ongoing concerns.
Possible areas for exploration include:
- Gendered citizenship
- Performing democracy
- Embodied citizens
- The mass, the mob, and citizenship
- Citizenship and protest
- Applied and Community Performance
- Theatre and Social Change
- Dramatic and artistic representations of citizenship
The conference will host Kabosh Theatre Company and their Artistic Director Paula McFetridge, including a performance of their recent work on gender, conflict, and violence
‘The Shedding of Skin’ https://kabosh.net/production/the-shedding-of-skin/
Abstracts of 400-500 words and a short bio to ISTR2022@yahoo.com by February 28, 2022
Inquiries to Dr Lisa Fitzpatrick at l.fitzpatrick@ulster.ac.uk