Call for Proposals:  SDHS 2012 Conference

SDHS Annual Conference 2012

Dance and the Social City

15-17 June, 2012

The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA

The Society of Dance History Scholars invites proposals for individual papers, panels, roundtables, movement workshops and lecture demonstrations for its thirty-fifth annual conference, hosted by the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. SDHS invites scholars and artists from across the globe to join us as we consider histories and narratives of dance and the social city. SDHS defines history in  the broadest possible way and includes in its conference programs a wide range of research methodologies, interpretive approaches, and analytic techniques. The program committee encourages interdisciplinary perspectives, and scholars from disciplines related to dance are strongly invited to submit their work. SDHS also encourages submissions from graduate students and independent scholars.

http://sdhs.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=188

Meeting in the City of Brotherly Love affords us the opportunity to consider the rich traditions of   social dance and performance inspired by one of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. We invite individual papers or entire panels that engage with dance practices in Philadelphia. We invite presentations that rethink the multiple meanings of social and city: urban identities, dance as a site  of social exchange, historical and contemporary iterations of dance and city planning. Some questions that might be considered include:

•             Is dance an inherently cosmopolitan enterprise? In other words, when we tell histories of dance, are we also telling histories of cities?

•             What does it mean to love an urban landscape in dance?

•             How can dances suggest alternative urban topographies? How can thinking about topography suggest alternative urban dances?

•             How do commerce and ‘the arts’ intersect in the city? What is the business of culture?

•             What is the relationship of the urban to the suburban, and how does dance contribute to upholding boundaries between them? Some sites to consider include

•             How has an idea of the city mapped itself onto dance practices, especially in so-called urban/street/hip hop dance forms?

•             In what ways do city structures guide, promote, script, or inhibit social relations? Does study of dance in global south cities mark structures of power, or shift embodiments of "modernity?"

•             Is an urban environment more likely to foster trend-setting or trend-following among dancers and choreographers? How do dance innovations spread from one city to another? At what point in a city's growth can it be said to have a local dance style?

Submissions should be submitted by December 15, 2011. Please refer to the SDHS website at www.sdhs.org to review the full call for proposals and to review the SDHS Guidelines for Making Proposals.

Information on the following awards is also available on the SDHS website:

•             Gertrude Lippincott Award – Awarded annually to the best English-language article published   in dance studies

•             Graduate Student Travel Grants – A travel stipend to defray conference travel expenses

•             Selma Jeanne Cohen Award – Writing Award for Students

SDHS 2012 Conference Committee

Harmony Bench, DonnaFaye Burchfield , Thomas F. DeFrantz, Kate Elswit, Rebekah Kowal, Raquel Monroe , Carl Paris, Maria Urrutia, Gabriele Klein, Jillian Peña

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