The Performance in Historical Paradigms Working Group provides a productive lens for discussing Performance Studies methodologies for those of us who juggle with multiple (inter)disciplinary paradigms and use performance theory to think historically, or think historically about performance. We invite proposals for papers and performances, up to 20 minutes in length, that engage with the general working group focus on the intersections between performance studies and history. Questions we discuss include:

-How might performance studies expand, change, or challenge the field of history—and vice versa?

- Where does the merging of history and performance studies currently occur most productively? Are there, or should there be, any limits to the use of performance theory in historical inquiry?

-How can the methods, theoretical influences, and other disciplinary preoccupations of Performance Studies apply to the study of the past?

-How do different research methodologies enable a historical perspective and what are their drawbacks? -What constitutes evidence in the intersection of performance studies and history?

For PSi 2012, in accordance with the theme of the conference, performance :: culture :: industry, we invite proposals which engage with the following questions:

How does a performance’s relationship to the historical real affect its perceived value and efficacy in an academic setting? in a commercial setting?

How might the history of amateur performance, or amateur performance on historical themes, complicate the binary of academic/high culture vs. professional/commercial theater?

How can we examine the history of theatrical performance as an industry – a history that began long before the Frankfurt School articulated its famous definition of the “culture industry”?

How might a combination of performance studies theory and theater history be brought on bear on questions of performance as reflecting/effecting identity (theater by and for migrants and other diasporic communities, theater and identity politics, performance that crosses or blurs cultural boundaries, the generally performative nature of identity)?

What are the cultural and economic drivers of certain performances? How have both the drivers and the performance practices evolved over time? What motivates performance makers?

What kind of economical or industrial factors have shaped and changed the aesthetics of performance?

How have the economical and/or industrial changes of the 19th and 20th century given rise to new genres (labor theater, community theater, etc.) and shaped their aesthetic features?

How can performance studies theory and theater history contribute to an understanding of performance as work? What were, and are, the relationships between bodily praxis (in any type of performative mode) and economic organisation?

How has, does and might performance engage with local, national and global concerns around environmental change and ecological impact? How has performance created certain relationships between the human and the non-human?

Please submit proposals to the conveners, Lisa Peschel: lisa.peschel@york.ac.uk; and Aniko Szucs: aniko.szucs@nyu.edu, by October 31, 2011. Proposals should include your name, institutional affiliation, e-mail address, phone number, technical requirements for your presentation (PC, projector, DVD player, internet access), a title and 350-word abstract, and a 150-word bio.