Citizenship, Conflict, and Performance

University of Ulster at Magee, Derry
June 3-4, 2022

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/istr-2022-citizenship-conflict-and-performance-tickets-324577067747

Basic Info:

10am on 3 June to 6pm on 4 June

Place: Ulster University, Magee Campus

Northland Road, Derry, BT48 7JL

Please see campus map here (pdf file).

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Summary: This conference investigates the performativity of citizenship and the role of the arts and the state, in times of peace and of conflict.

More information:

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.

Topics 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 its 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/

The keynote address will be delivered by Christopher Fitz-Simon

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Registration

Ticket information: