ATHE ’08

2008 ATHE Conference

ATHE's 2008 Conference

July 31 - August 3, 2008

Grand Hyatt Hotel - Denver, CO

Click here for more conference information from ATHE’s website.

• BTA Call for Papers: (Click here to download as a PDF file.)
The Black Theatre Association (BTA), a Focus Group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), invites complete panel proposals for ATHE’s 2008 conference. In light of the conference theme, “Difficult Dialogues: Theatre and the Art of Engagement,” BTA is particularly interested in panels that consider the how theatre continues to engage and challenge Black experiences in the United States and abroad. Possible panel topics include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Peaking Students’ Interest in Drama of the Black Diaspora
• Is the Stage a Safe Place for Race?
• Colorblind and Non-Traditional Casting: Where Are We Today?
• New Conversations in Contemporary Black Performance
• Black Theatre Identity: Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Age
• Improvisation in Black Drama and Performance (ATHE Links Session on Improvisation)*

Complete panel proposals should be submitted online directly to ATHE at http://www.athe.org by 1 November 2007. Only complete panel proposals will be considered. Please remember to submit requests for anticipated audiovisual needs, conference grants, or guest pass grants with your proposal.

If you are interested in discussing potential panels with other scholars and artists prior to the submission deadlines, feel free to post an inquiry on the BTA listserv by emailing Jonathan Shandell, BTA Secretary, at jonathan.shandell@nyu.edu. BTA Members who already subscribe to the listserv may post messages by sending an email to btanews@yahoogroups.com directly.

*ATHE invites panel proposals on “improvisation” for sessions sponsored by various focus groups that will be “linked” together at the 2008 conference.

• BTA Debut Panel Call for Papers: (Click here to download as a PDF file.)

The Black Theatre Association (BTA), a focus group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), seeks essay submissions for its 8th Annual Debut Panel. We encourage all graduate students and non-tenured faculty working on African American theatre and performance studies who have never presented at ATHE or a national conference to apply. Papers may consider any aspect of African American dramatic criticism, theatre history, plays, playwrights, performers, directors, designers, etc. The highest quality papers will be selected by our distinguished panel of theatre scholar judges: Harry J. Elam, Jr., Olive H. Palmer Professor in the Humanities and Chair of the Drama Department (Stanford University); Sandra G. Shannon, Professor of English (Howard University) and co-editor of Theatre Topics; and David Krasner, Associate Professor of Performing Arts (Emerson College). Accepted panelists will present their papers at the ATHE conference, July 31-August 3, 2008, in Denver, Colorado.

All essays submissions should be ten to twelve pages in length, typed, double-spaced (including block quotes), and use either Chicago or MLA style citations. Please e-mail your contact information and complete essay submission as an MSWord attachment to Melinda Wilson, BTA Conference Planner, at mwilson@csus.edu. Please type “BTA Debut Panel” in the subject heading.

Deadline for submissions is Friday, February 29, 2008.