States of Emergency – ATDS Online Pre-Conference
States/Stages of Emergency: An ATDS Pre-Conference
Tuesday, July 30, 2024 over Zoom
Proposals to participate as a panelist due: June 15, 2024
This is an emergency. From neoliberal capitalism and censorship of our stages and our syllabi to physical assaults on our students and legislated attacks on anti-racist programming and queer, trans, and nonbinary people, U.S. American higher education calls upon us to organize.
This American Theatre and Drama Society pre-conference will have free registration and take place online to gather all of us, as we aim to include those who might not be able to attend the Association for Theatre in Higher Education conference in Atlanta for accessibility, caregiving, political, financial, and/or environmental reasons. Let’s plan.
State of the Job Market
Following up on ATDS’s Adjunct Advocacy session at last summer’s ATHE, this session will look specifically at the current state of the academic job market in theatre and performance studies. Noe Montez (Associate Professor of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies, Tufts University) will share the latest data from his job market tracking research. There will then be an opportunity for attendees to ask questions and share reflections on the 2023-2024 job cycle, and for the group to brainstorm ways to advocate for more full-time positions within our institutions as well as imagine more diverse careers for theatre and performance scholars and educators.
Stages of Censorship
With alarming frequency and as proclaimed by the Dramatists Legal Defense Fund (DLDF), theatre productions are being banned. “We are no longer dealing with one off cancellations driven by the squeamishness of a particular high school principal,” said DLDF President John Weidman. “We are dealing with deliberate, orchestrated efforts by institutions, from local school boards all the way up to state legislatures, to dictate the ideological boundaries within which theater will be permitted, the space within which the unique, idiosyncratic voices of Americans writing for the stage will either be tolerated or suppressed.”
This roundtable invites the perspectives of participants with direct experience and/or historical perspectives on theater censorship at the intersections of politics, culture, and artistic expression. Following 6-8 minute presentations of participants’ case-studies, open conversation will follow concerning the stakes of censorship in theatre today. If you are interested in presenting a case study, please submit a brief abstract and a 100-word bio using this form by June 15, 2024.
Restrictive States: Centering Comrades on the Ground
Building on our statement last year, this roundtable highlights colleagues working in institutions where state legislatures have banned EDI pedagogy and drag performance and undermined tenure and shared governance. They will share their experiences contending with these policies in order to educate attendees and strategize collective actions.
If you are interested in offering 5-minute remarks as a formal panelist, then please submit a 100150-word abstract summarizing your potential contribution and a 100-word bio using this form by June 15, 2024.
Note for Attendees:
Registration information for all those who would like to participate in this virtual Pre-Conference as attendees will be available in the coming weeks.
Attendance is free and open to ATDS members and non-members!
Questions:
The ATDS virtual Pre-Conference planning team is listed below. Please feel free to reach out to with any questions.
Ginny Anderson (vanderso@conncoll.edu)
Donatella Galella (galella@ucr.edu)
Amy Meyer (meyer.amy.e@gmail.com)
Heidi Nees (hlnees@bgsu.edu)
Samuel Yates (yates@psu.edu)