Wednesday February 17

4 PM - 6:00 PM   GMT

Drama Studio, Gaskell Building 048, Brunel University London

Royona Mitra  (Brunel, Theatre) “Choreographing the Politics of Touch”

Maria Kastrinou (Brunel, Anthropology):  “Either we'll survive the sea or we'll die:” From Syria to War”

Royoa Mitra is the author of Akram Khan: Dancing New Interculturalism (Palgrave, May 2015). She has a PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London (2011) on the British-Bangladeshi artist Akram Khan, an MA in Physical Theatre from Royal Holloway, University of London (2001) and a BA (Hons) in Theatre & Performance from the University of Plymouth (2000). She trained in classical and contemporary South Asian dance in India and specialised in physical theatre in the UK. Royona was the founding member and performer with Kinaetma Theatre, an intercultural physical theatre company that made work between India, UK and Portugal from 2002 to 2007. Prior to joining the Theatre Department at Brunel, Royona was a Senior Lecturer in the Drama Department at University of Wolverhampton where she was also the MA Drama Course Leader.

Maria Kastrinou is a political anthropologist whose work examines power relations in the construction of states and subjects through an ethnographic focus on ‘sectarianism,’ energy (geo)politics, statelessness and refugee. She has conducted long-term fieldwork in pre-war Syria (2008–2010) looking at contested identities and politics between the Druze sect and the Syrian state. Her research has incorporated political economy and historical sociology approaches in an ongoing project on energy and resource conflict in Syria, initiated through a research fellowship at Durham Energy Institute (2013-2014). Since the war erupted, Maria has been carrying out new research with Syrian refugees in Greece and Lebanon, and on energy politics and belonging in Lebanon and the Occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

THEME: Precarity and the Politics of Art:  Performative and Critical Empowerment after Democracy

all seminars are up-streamed to https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC2ijZ2U-avidCh9OsHJeWDe8t5Ib75rm