PERFORMANCE STUDIES AND AUTOETHNOGRAPHY
Call for Papers and Panels
Central States Communication Association (CSCA)
Annual Convention – Cincinnati, Ohio
March 23-28, 2021
Inspire
The Performance Studies & Autoethnography Interest Group invites submissions for the 2021 Central States Communication Association convention to be held in Cincinnati, OH, March 23-28, 2021. Submissions begin July 1, 2020, with a deadline for submissions of Friday, October 9, 2020 at 11:59 pm CDT.
Our interest group focuses on two primary areas of scholarship: Performance Studies and Autoethnography. We view performance as a method of communication inquiry and as an embodied way of knowing and presenting information. We view autoethnography as a critically-engaged orientation toward scholarship located in embodied experience. We invite scholars to attend to these interests at multiple levels, including the intersections of performance and autoethnography. We welcome a variety of submission formats, including individual papers and performances, performances panels, paper panels, and spotlight sessions.
We especially encourage members to address issues related to the convention theme “Inspire.” As aesthetically-inclined qualitative fields, performance studies and autoethnography have much to offer the 2021 convention theme. Panels and performances addressing the origins, processes, techniques, and difficulties in artistic/aesthetic inspiration might offer scholars a chance to share both theoretical and practical strategies with peers. In a broader social sense, the utopian bent of performance studies and autoethnographic scholarship prepares us to examine and trouble the degree to which our work can be inspirational/aspiration for academic and non-academic audiences. Do current works and strategies offer workable visions and serve as inspiration to positive action, or—if we have fallen short of this goal—how might we improve our efforts at demonstrative action or outreach? Submitters considering the etymology of the term “inspire”—“inspirare,” to breath or blow into, usually in the sense of “the breath of life” or to “impart a truth or idea to someone”—might consider how the tasks of performance and autoethnographic writing create and animate discourses and practices. This process generates ethical obligations that arise from “giving life” to an enterprise that induces community, seeks redress and equity, and aspires to imparting idea(l)s through a variety of formal modes. Finally, we champion the pursuit of heretofore unmentioned or unknown moments of inspiration in generating your convention submissions. As a general rule, we encourage efforts at co-sponsorship between various interest groups, when appropriate.
The interest group would also like to invite members to submit nominations for a variety of awards: Top Paper, Top Debut Paper, The Outstanding Article or Book Chapter in Performance Studies, The Outstanding Article or Book Chapter in Autoethnography, and The Outstanding Book in Performance Studies/Autoethnography. The outstanding article/book chapter awards are intended to reward high-quality scholarship published within the preceding two calendar years (2018 & 2019). Please submit a copy of the article, along with a letter of support, and specify whether the article is to be considered for the Performance Studies or Autoethnography Award. The Outstanding Book in Performance Studies/Autoethnography is a rotating award (even-years for Performance Studies, odd-years for Autoethnography) that is intended to reward exceptional book-length work published within the preceding five calendar years (2014-2019). Please submit a copy of the book (electronic-preferred), along with a letter of support, for the upcoming 2021 Outstanding Book in Autoethnography award. All nominations and submissions should be directed to the interest group chair.
To submit to the Performance Studies and Autoethnography interest group, please utilize the CSCA Online Submission System.
Additional details about the 2021 CSCA Convention are available on the CSCA website.
Thank you for considering submitting to the interest group, and we look forward to seeing you in Cincinnati.
Travis Brisini
Chair, Performance Studies and Autoethnography Interest Group
tbrisini@lsu.edu