Drama and Post-Truth Youth
Drama and Post-Truth Youth
A Special Issue of Youth Theatre Journal
Guest Edited by Gustave Weltsek (gweltsek@iu.edu) and Clare Hammoor
This special edition of Youth Theatre Journal invites theoretical articles, investigative experiences, and research-based lesson plans that emerge from the notions of “post-truth” and “youthquake”. In 2016 the Oxford Dictionary selected “post-truth” as its word of the year defining the term as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief” (Word of the Year 2016, n.d.). Then in 2017 the Oxford Dictionary selected “youthquake” as its word of the year, defining it as “a significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people” (Word of the Year 2017, n.d.).
At the nexus of these two emergent concepts, Youth Theatre Journal invites submissions which inquire into one or more of the following:
- How do we view, imagine, define, and explore notions of truth/post-truth with young people?
- How might drama foster spaces for youth to create and perform their own truths and identities within a world where history and what is historical fact have become spaces of contestation and debate?
- How do voice and agency function for youth in drama/theatre contexts seeking to find, define, create or defy truth/s?
- What do spaces within drama look like where youth explore, interpret and imagine what truth may be? How are these spaces created and maintained?
- What forms of performance allow youth the opportunity to express their truths (spoken word, performance art, immersive performance, video or audio-based work)?
- How do youth-serving individuals and agencies who use drama navigate the complex socio-political terrain that asks: “Whose truth anyway?” and “Why one truth and not another?”
Special Issue Submission Deadline: Friday, March 8, 2019. Please submit all pieces through ScholarOne, http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/uytj with additional information available at http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/UYTJ
Youth Theatre Journal is a refereed journal that draws contributions from a wide and varied community of researchers, educators, artists, philosophers, administrators and theorists. It is the official scholarly publication of AATE. Youth Theatre Journal is published twice a year by Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group. All domestic AATE members receive a complimentary subscription to the Youth Theatre Journal, including mailed copies of the journal and online access to archived issues. Non-members and others wishing to subscribe to Youth Theatre Journal should contact Geraldine Richards richards@taylorandfrancis.com.
Youth Theatre Journal welcomes 4000–6000 word original articles and essays that report on and analyze research and theorized praxis grounded in an eclectic range of approaches to theatre and drama as they intersect with young people and their communities. Because theatre centers on “the human experience,” pieces that place theatre and youth in practical and theoretical conversation within the art form are as encouraged as cross-disciplinary inquiries and reports that stretch to bridge theatre with traditionally disparate fields. The journal focuses on the dissemination of ideas relating to developments in and perspectives on diverse iterations of theatre, drama and performance by, with, for and about children, youth and their worlds. Youth Theatre Journal encourages authors to write in a lucid and accessible style, avoiding unnecessary jargon and taking care to communicate to an international readership.