Call for Papers | The Prism of Festivals in Theatre and Performance Studies: Open Historiographic Issues

The conference organised within the framework of the PRIN 2022 project “Theatre Festivals between Local and Global: Rethinking Theatre and Performance in Italy from the 1950s to the 1970s”, aims to provide a platform for in-depth discussion on theatre festivals, their histories, and the methodologies used for their analysis. The conference will place particular focus on the Cold War period and emphasize the idea of festivals as an “intangible cultural heritage” of the communities that produced them. Additionally, it will address strategies for collecting, cataloguing, and connecting sources essential to the study of festivals, as well as to the reactivation of festival memories.

Relevant topics may include, but are not limited to:

• History and historiography of theatre festivals
• Theatre festivals, both local and global
• Theatre archives and festival studies
• Oral history and festival studies
• Theatre festivals and the Cold War
• Theatre festivals and conflicts in the twentieth century
• Theatre festivals and cultural diplomacy
• Economics and organization of theatre festivals
• Performance culture and theatre festivals in the twentieth century
• Festival Studies: comparative perspectives between theatre, dance, cinema, music, and cultural studies

Accepted languages: Italian and English.

Please submit your abstract (max. 250 words), a short biography (max. 200 words), and your contact information to: prism.festival2025@gmail.com.
The submission deadline is 30 January 2025.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

• Pascale Goetschel (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
• Heike Roms (University of Exeter)

You may find more information here.