Although the “body” has been key to critical discourses since the 1980s, the impact of such discourses on understandings of the performing body has been limited. While “the performative” has become a key metaphor for examinations of bodies in the social domain, the specificity of performance and its frames, the ways these impact on the actions of and reactions to the soma, have received far less critical attention. This working group therefore recognises that there is still substantial research to be undertaken, especially in relation to interrogating cultural form(s). Areas for consideration include: historically based readings of the body (including the gendered, racial, sexualised and politically radical body); group or ensemble collections of the body in performance; the individual body as testament; the virtual body; and, the disciplined (rehearsed) body.

Conference Call for Papers 2010:  The Performing Body and Its Double(s)

We invite proposals that, of course, include re-thinkings of Artaudian bodies, as well as other considerations of movements from the individual to collective body via duality and doubling. As Deleuze and Guattari observe in the introduction to A Thousand Plateaus: “The two of us wrote Anti-Oedipus together. Since each of us was several, there was already quite a crowd.” We are interested in theorizations that conceive of doubling as the intertwining and/or mutual constitution of counterparts, and that move beyond the historical use of binary oppositions.

We welcome proposals for presentations that might consider the following:
— stand-ins, body-doubles, doppelgangers
— accomplices and double acts
— cloned or duplicated bodies
— bodies that are analogous or run in parallel to other bodies
— avatars, virtual and mediated bodies
— ghosts, hauntings, and memories of bodies that have aged or changed
— mimesis, impersonation, mirroring, and iconography

Please send a 250 word abstract/proposal, a short biographical statement (150 words), and an outline of anticipated technical requirements by 30 April 2010 to the working group convenors: Jennifer Parker-Starbuck ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and Roberta Mock ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Papers may either be circulated in advance of the conference for discussion by working group members or else take the form of 20 minute presentations followed by discussion. While we welcome statements of preference with proposals, final decisions will be made by the working group convenors and will be indicated at the time of acceptance.

We are also open to alternative, practice-as-research or performative proposals that engage thematically and rigorously with the working group theme, but these must be achievable with limited resources and within 20-30 minutes.

The Performance & the Body Working Group warmly welcomes participants who do not wish to present a paper this year; please contact the convenors by email upon conference registration to confirm your participation.

Jennifer Parker-Starbuck	Roberta Mock
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it	This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

 Previous convenors of the Performance & the Body Working Group include Colin Counsell and Joshua Sofaer.