ATHE 2023 – ATDS Call to Action

CALL TO ACTION
American Theatre and Drama Society (ATDS) Sessions at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference, Austin, TX, August 3–6, 2023 ATHE 2023 –– BUILDING FROM THE RUBBLE: CENTERING CARE

ATHE’s 2023 Call to Action urges us to build anew to initiate transformative change across our field. For ATHE 2023, we will develop the work begun through discussions and programming during ATDS’s 2022 anniversary year. We will (re)orient ourselves, the organization, and the field to actionable care and empathy. Through critical examination of our current state amidst the debris of inequitable, exploitative, unsustainable, and harmful practices and systems long considered “the norm,” we can continue to break down these structures, thus opening space to strategize actions that will help us rebuild in ways that center care, empathy, respect, humanity and community. We invite submissions that identify and redress systemic inequalities and injustices within drama, theatre, and performance across the Americas, broadly conceived. How have the academy; classrooms; theatre; production practices; archives; research conventions; publication processes; etc. contributed to the normalization of white supremacy, cisnormativity, and heteropatriarchy that infuses our systems of being, acting, and working? What actions can we take to rebuild in ways that frame our work as transformational as opposed to transactional?

Building anew often relies on thinking anew. We welcome ideas for novel approaches to conference sessions in addition to proposals informed by more traditional formats such as individual proposals, panels/roundtables, and working groups. We’ve designated two priority areas for our sessions at ATHE 2023:

1) Looking Inward

Proposals within this category might address:

• Being in, or of, the Americas is just one facet of the identities some people hold. How might we incorporate multiple perspectives and/or intersectionality into our scholarship and practice on theatre, performance, and drama across the Americas?
• The year-long anniversary celebration of ATDS offered valuable reflections on the organization, its values, and ways to carry out those values. How might ATDS continue these conversations as the world around us continually changes?
• What do we mean and what do we include when we call upon “American” Theatre & Drama?
• How might ATDS keep building our antiracism initiatives?
• How can the organization further support, expand, and diversify ATDS membership?

2) Networks of Care: Advancing Support Within & Across ATDS, ATHE, and the Academy

Proposals within this category might address:

• ATHE has stated that this will be the final year the conference is committed to convening at an exclusive conference hotel. The opportunity is therefore ripe to consider the historic (in)accessibility of conferences on multiple levels. This might include the physical space of the conference site, financial resources, caregiving responsibilities at home, past harms that conferences have inflicted, amongst others. How can ATDS help build a new conference model that is truly accessible for scholars and artists coming from a multiplicity of backgrounds and at varied stages of their careers?
• Access to conferences often connects to access to institutional resources. What does this mean for our colleagues in tenuous positions, such as adjunct faculty, and who may feel untethered from a “home” institution? How might ATDS redistribute resources to advocate for and support those whose positions are often marked by uncertainty and exploitation?
• How do we prioritize and actively value collaboration––within ATDS; within and across ATHE Focus Groups; within institutions; within the field?
• What does support look like within and across the academy and communities of theatremakers in the Americas? What might seem like support, but instead results in ineffectual outcomes? Or, even worse, inadvertently replicates harm? In what ways do we sometimes encounter slippage between intent and impact when endeavoring to support? How can the field address well-intentioned actions that cause harm?
• What does decentering one’s self in service and in support look like? How might we with privileges in the field of theatre and performance actively de-center ourselves in the pursuit of service and support? What are some systemic mechanisms that make this difficult?

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION INFORMATION

Proposals are welcome from all colleagues––ATDS members are encouraged to submit, but you need not be a member to submit a proposal. Individual proposals should be submitted to the ATDS Conference Planners, Heidi Nees (hlnees@bgsu.edu) and Amy Meyer (meyer.amy.e@gmail.com), who will group submissions with similar themes to form full sessions for consideration by ATHE.

In your proposal please include:

• Title of session you’re proposing and/or title of the work you would like to share
• Session format (1. Individual proposal, 2. Panel/roundtable, 3. Working group, or 4. Something brand new!) This year’s conference will include both in-person and virtual sessions––please specify in-person or virtual if you have a preference
• An abstract of 150-250 words describing topic(s), goals, and guiding questions
• A short bio (50 words) and your contact information including email and phone number

Individual proposals must be submitted to Heidi Nees and Amy Meyer by DECEMBER 4, 2022. (ATHE does not accept individual paper submissions, please do not submit an individual proposal through the ATHE portal.)

Group session proposals (with all participating members assembled) must be submitted directly to ATHE (using this link) by DECEMBER 12, 2022. Please forward a copy of your completed proposal to Heidi Nees (hlnees@bgsu.edu) and Amy Meyer (meyer.amy.e@gmail.com).

We welcome opportunities to co-sponsor session proposals with other focus groups. Multidisciplinary session proposals must be sponsored by a minimum of two (2) ATHE Focus Groups and/or Committees. It is your responsibility to contact each Focus Group Conference Planner or Committee Chair prior to the submission deadline to gain approval of all sponsoring groups (focus and other group contact information here). For additional details on proposal submissions visit ATHE’s website here: What to Know About Proposing a Panel for ATHE. Unlike multidisciplinary sessions, single focus group session proposals do not require focus group approval before submission.

The conference planners will evaluate proposals for relevance to ATDS’s Call to Action, clarity of topic(s) and goals, and potential for collaborations with other focus groups. See ATHE’s Session Submission Guidelines here.

Please note that ATHE will open a second round of submissions in March 2023. This call will be for people to collaborate and develop new all-conference programming, including larger format sessions. Submitters who were not accepted during the first round may apply to these opportunities. ATDS will circulate announcements and reminders about this second call.

Thank you for joining us in making a more responsive ATDS.