CALL FOR PAPERS!
AAP-Sponsored Sessions at ATHE 2025
The ATHE 2025 conference theme is “The Real,” a call to consider the real effects of a virtual conference and reconstruct or deconstruct a binary opposition between “real” and “virtual.” The CFP is Here.
The Major Experiments:
ATHE 2025 conference will be structured as two parts: a series of Focus Group-led one-day symposia in Spring 2025 and a week-long virtual gathering in Summer 2025.
One-day Spring Symposia will center on fostering and maintaining connective relationships and addressing the unique needs of ATHE’s focus groups. These symposia might begin research projects and conversations to be taken up in the summer.
The summer conference will be an opportunity to capitalize on the opportunities offered by online conferencing.
Timelines:
*Spring Symposia:
One-day symposia: Saturday, February 22/ Friday, March 14/ Friday, April 4.
April 4 is our first choice (March 14 is during the Association for Asian Studies Conference, and Feb 22 is very soon). Still, please let Dr. Weiyu Li [weiyu2128@gmail.com] know if you are only available on Feb 22.
Submission deadline for Spring symposia: November 15, 2024
If you are interested in submitting a focus group panel proposal, please contact Dr. Weiyu Li no later than November 11, 2024 – but earlier is better!
*Summer Conference:
Summer virtual conference: Monday, July 28 - Friday, August 1
Submission deadline for the ATHE Summer: December 19, 2024
A separate CFP for AAP/ATHE Summer will be sent out later.
Proposed AAP-Sponsored Sessions
Below are several sessions that AAP is already formulating. Please know that this call for proposals is targeted at the Spring symposia. However, as ATHE encourages focus groups to use Spring Symposia to foster research ideas and relationships that could potentially be continued in the Summer conference, we may hold the same or similar sessions in the summer portion of ATHE 2025 to build up an arch between the Spring and Summer symposiums so that they both could be helpful for scholars who are available for either one or both symposiums.
If you are interested in joining one of these sessions, please send Dr. Weiyu Li [weiyu2128@gmail.com] the following information: 1) Your name, email, and institutional information as applicable, and 2) A 2-4 sentence description of how you’d like to participate/what you would bring to this session.
The sessions listed below are just the beginning. We also welcome other ideas! If you plan to submit a session or present a paper, please let me know (with all relevant information). We will manage to form additional sessions based on interest and availability. We are also looking for people who would like to be the coordinators for these sessions.
Feel free to contact Dr. Weiyu Li with any ideas you might have, or submit through the application portal. The Spring Symposia application portal will be opened on October 25, 2024, and the Summer application web portal will be opened on December 2, 2024. We will forward you the web link when the portal is ready.
We will also hold an information session on October 25 for the AAP community to answer potential questions.
Globalizing Asia (Presentation Session)
What is a “Real” Asian theater? How do we define the so-called “Real”? In the past, those discussions focused on dialectical relationships between the West and East, tradition and modernity, as well as originality and adaptation. As the field has collectively shifted its conversation to anti-colonialism and begun to acknowledge the significance of contacts and cultural exchanges between non-Western communities and racial minorities, this session aspires to investigate novel perspectives and discourses on the evolving geopolitical relationships and the dynamic patterns of cultural exchanges. In addition, the session aims to facilitate inter-Asia/inter-cultural/inter-racial theatre studies.
Participants will submit short papers (8-10 pages/double-spaced) in Asian Studies, Asian Diaspora Studies, Asian American Studies, Critical Racial Studies, etc. The potential topics are: 1) Practicing and studying Asian theatre in the age of globalization; 2) Performing, scripting, and teaching decolonial Asia; 3) Performing Asia in diaspora; 4) Forging an Asian intercultural theatre work/ troupe; 5) Studying racial encounter and creating racial solidarity through theater practices and scholarships.
Internationalizing ATHE (Roundtable Session)
This session will invite scholars living outside the US and create a virtual space for them to connect with the AAP membership as well as the broader community of theatre scholars who come to ATHE. It will take the format of a virtual roundtable—an internet-based “chat room”—to share their research ideas, pedagogies, and inquiries. In addition, the session will pose the problem: How could we better incorporate scholars from across the globe to promote Asian theater studies?
AI and Theatre (Working Group)
Throughout its history, theatre has adapted and embraced emerging technologies. Currently, Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands at the forefront of contemporary discourse, driving significant disruption across various sectors, including the arts. While AI skepticism remains in the industry, many theater artists, scholars, and educators have begun considering AI as a creative partner. In this working group, participants will circulate short papers, scripts, videos, etc., showing how they collaborate with AI and discussing if the implications of AI would open up a new possibility for future theatrical practices as well as pedagogical and research approaches.
Mentorship Session: Job Search, Application, and Interview (Workshop)
This session will invite tenured and tenure-track faculties to share their experiences on job search, application, and interview. Each faculty will work closely with 2-3 mentees, review their job application materials, and discuss individual inquiries and concerns. The potential topics will be 1) how to align research interests with priorities in the job market, 2) how to develop a profile for job search, 3) how to perfect your cover letter for different kinds of positions, 4) how to prepare for job interviews and campus job visits, and 5) how to build up networking for research, teaching, and other professional services.
Anti-Racism Workshop: How to Bring Anti-Racism Practice into Classroom (Working Group. Hosted by the AAP Anti-Racism Committee)
Historically, theater has been crucial in constructing a society, especially power structure, ideological system, and social identity. With a rejection of the hegemonic world and an attempt at reconstruction, theater becomes impossible to be practiced and interpreted in conventional or “safe” ways; rather, it often appears to be open-ended, episodic, fragmented, or consciously antiAristotelian. Correspondingly, teaching theater should also be revolutionized to readdress “Real” history and rectify past and present injustices.
This session will invite participants to discuss how to teach Asian theater under the current circumstances and how to bring anti-racism practice into the classroom. In the first 20 minutes of the session, participants would share their concerns and dilemmas they encountered in teaching. In the second part of the session, participants would gather in smaller groups to discuss how, through designing syllabi, creating assignments, and teaching diverse courses, AAP members could work with their students to critique and redress systemic racism and further create an inclusive and diverse classroom.
Working-in-Progress Session: Publishing with Asian Theater Journal (Writing workshop)
Asian theatre/performance/theory remains notably under-represented in the major generalist theatre studies journals. This session aims to help change that by helping to move works-in progress toward journal submission in Asian Theater Journal. This session invites early-career scholars to submit a work-in-progress with the specific goal of getting assistance from the editors. The focus group will meet twice (on both Spring and Summer symposia) on the same publication work to make continuous improvements based on editors’ feedback.
Meet and Greet with AAP (Roundtable discussion)
Come and meet other members and friends of the Association for Asian Performance. Learn how to get involved, share research ideas, and meet new colleagues.
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Again, the sessions listed above are just the beginning! This is an initial proposal. We are still welcoming other ideas! In addition, we are working with other scholars to formulate more panels and will send separate emails with those updates.
Information Session:
We will be hosting an information session at 3pm in Pacific Time on October 25, Friday. The info session is intended to answer questions to anything related to ATHE Spring Symposia plan. Please feel free to attend if you have any questions.
(Passcode: AAP)
Contact Info:
Weiyu Li (Vice President for AAP/ATHE Conference Planner): weiyu2128@gmail.com
*All presenters are expected to join AAP. To learn more about the benefits of becoming an AAP member, please visit our website at https://www.asian-performance.org/ and consider joining us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/aaponline/.
*CFP in pdf:
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