Call For Papers:
Theatre History Focus Group (THFG) Sessions
Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference
August 11-14, The Palmer House Hotel
Chicago, IL
Submission Deadlines:
Individual papers must be sent by October 9 to Sam O’Connell at
soconnell7@worcester.edu (see further information below).
Complete panels must be submitted by November 1 via the ATHE online form at
http://www.athe.org.
ATHE 2016
Bodies at Work: Performance, Labor, and ATHE at 30
The Theatre History Focus Group (THFG) of the Association for Theatre in Higher
Education (ATHE) invites proposals for next year’s conference to be held in
Chicago, IL, at the The Palmer House Hotel. Our 2016 conference theme, “Bodies at
Work: Performance, Labor, and ATHE at 30,” invites participants to consider the
relationship between labor and performance, performance and/as work, and our own
labor as teachers and scholars of theatre history. The conference will address the
following key questions:
How does performance help us understand bodies at work, inside and outside
theatre? How have theatre and performance historically put bodies to work,
for better and for worse? How are bodies disciplined by routines of theatrical
labor—or routines of teaching and learning? How can we understand different
modes of labor as performances? How do we engage both the pleasure and
precarity of bodies at work? How might we choreograph new ways of
working?
THFG invites you to consider this invitation not only through the case studies you
propose, but also through an even more pronounced engagement with the labor of
bodies in performance in theatre history as well as with the labor and practice of
writing, researching, and teaching theatre historiography. THFG invites proposals for
panels and roundtables, as well as proposals that challenge traditional session formats
through performance, workshops, or other “session events.”
As ATHE’s 30th anniversary conference, ATHE 2016 allows us the opportunity to
reflect on our own history and work as a focus group. Proposals that engage with
THFG’s history within ATHE are also encouraged.
Proposals might engage:
 The labor and work of the theatre historian
 Changing critical methodologies in the field
 Canon formation and minority voices in the theatre
 Limits of the archive and the repertoire
 The history of the multiple laboring bodies in theatre and performance
 Pedagogy and training as historical practice
 Digital humanities and the theatre history archive/classroom
We especially invite submissions incorporating approaches that emphasize
‘inter/trans-national and inter/trans-cultural exchanges in performance texts, process,
or production.’ THFG remains committed to giving voice to a diversity of
methodological approaches and geographical emphases.
Tips for submitting proposals:
1. Proposals for complete panels (with all presenters assembled) should be
submitted directly to ATHE through the website at www.athe.org. The
deadline for all proposals is November 1, 2014. Please forward a copy of your
proposal to THFG Chair and Conference Planner, Sam O’Connell, at
soconnell7@worcester.edu.
2. If you would like assistance in panel coordination, please use the THFG
message board on THFG’s page at athe.org or on our Facebook group (ATHE
Theatre History Focus Group), or email individual paper proposals to the
conference planner at soconnell7@worcester.edu no later than Friday,
October 9th. Please note, this option does not guarantee
submission/acceptance to the conference, which is determined by ATHE and
not THFG.
3. Submissions may be either discipline specific or multidisciplinary. In general,
we are interested in panel topics that address the history of theatrical practice,
historiography, or the relation of theatre to history in a larger sense. We
encourage proposals that include both senior and junior scholars, as well as
graduate students. A senior scholar could well serve as a respondent. We also
encourage collaborations with other Focus Groups and Committees of ATHE
to develop dynamic multidisciplinary sessions. Please see below for specific
rules and guidelines for multidisciplinary proposals.
For Theatre History-Specific Proposals: If your session addresses primarily theatre
history, then choose “Single Focus Group” in the first selection box of the online
proposal form. For Session Sponsor, select number 18, “(TH) Theatre
History.” When the selection process begins, all THFG-targeted proposals will be
sent to the THFG conference planner. The THFG Executive Committee will rank the
proposals, and the conference committee will use those rankings to make final
programming decisions. It is not necessary to contact the conference planner before
submitting a THFG proposal, but please do forward a copy of your proposal to the
conference planner once you have submitted it (see above,
soconnell7@worcester.edu). Also feel free to contact the conference planner if you
have any problems or concerns or if you are curious as to whether or not your
proposal is appropriate for THFG.
For Multi-Disciplinary (MD) Proposals: If your session addresses theatre history
but is also appropriate for another Focus Group or Committee, consider THFG as one
of your target focus groups. You must select 2 or more targeted Focus Groups or
Committees for an MD panel to be considered. To make an MD proposal you must
contact the conference planners for each of the targeted Focus Groups/Committees by
email before submitting online in order to receive feedback and to make sure the
proposals are appropriate for each FG /Committee. If one of your targeted focus
groups is not enthusiastic, it is far better to know before submission and perhaps find
another FG or committee to increase its chance of being accepted (MD proposals are
ranked by each of its affiliated Focus Groups). See www.athe.org for contact
information for Focus Group conference planners and Committee chairs.
Special notes for the 2016 Conference:
A. As you assemble proposals for the website, please avoid copying and
pasting material from Word to avoid electronic translation errors. Instead,
save your document as rich text (.rtf) and copy/paste from Notepad
(Windows) or Text Edit (Mac) into the online session proposal form (found
at http://www.athe.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=184).
B. Upon successful completion of a session proposal, the session
coordinator should immediately receive a confirmation email from
sessions@athe.org.
C. If you plan to use PowerPoint or other projected material, you must
request an LCD projector at the time of proposal. While there is a $300 fee,
please note that grant requests for technology are strongly encouraged and
frequently awarded. For questions about what is included in LCD/Tech
packages, please contact ATHE’s Event Planner Erin Barbarskis at
erin@athe.org.
D. It will not be possible to request specific days for presentations. If
selected, your session could be scheduled on any day of the conference.
Session Coordinators should ensure that all participants know that they
should be available for all days of the conference.
E. Participants will be limited to a maximum of two presentations, which
include delivering a paper, serving on a roundtable, or serving in an
equivalent role in a different type of session. There is no limit to the number
of sessions that a person can Chair or Coordinate.
Session coordinators should expect to hear whether or not proposals have been
accepted or rejected by mid-March 2015.
Questions? Contact THFG Chair/Conference Planner Sam O’Connell at
soconnell7@worcester.edu