In Bodies We Trust: Performance, Affect, and Political Economy

What is the relationship between affect and political economies? What role might performance play in negotiating conditions of bodies, affects, political economies, and spaces? In Bodies We Trust: Performance, Affect, & Political Economy—the 2013 Department of Performance Studies Graduate Student Conference—invites graduate students, artists, and activists to generate new understandings among affect, political economy, and performance.

‘Affect’ and ‘political economy’ have each become integral in elucidating performance. Affect—embodied feelings that circulate—has been used to make sense of minoritarian feelings of otherness such as José Esteban Muñoz’s ‘feeling brown’ or Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s ‘queer performativity,’ and embodied responses to postmodern capitalism such as Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt’s ‘affective labor.’ Political economy—the influence of “political … and economic systems” on “institutions, culture, and human behavior”*—animates how performance operates in frameworks of policy, economies, and political institutions. We invite papers and performances that illuminate, complicate, and challenge relationships across embodied feelings, political and economic systems, and performance.

Each panel and each performance will be paired with a Northwestern University or Chicago-area faculty member who will act as a discussant. Confirmed faculty discussants include Joshua Chambers-Letson, Nick Davis, Tracy Davis, Hannah Feldman, Marcela Fuentes, Barnor Hesse, Richard Iton, Chloe Johnston, D. Soyini Madison, Susan Manning, Kaley Mason, Coya Paz, Janice Radway, Ramón H. Rivera-Servera, C. Riley Snorton, Elizabeth Son, and Harvey Young. The three-day conference also includes a keynote address by Judith Hamera, a collaborative plenary with Northwestern and Chicago-area faculty, movement workshops, and catered receptions to build community with attendees across disciplines and artistic interests.

Theater in the Dark is an intimate experience harkening back to the old radio dramas of the early 20th century. Using Ernest Hemmingway's hair-rasing story The Short Happy Life of Francis Maycomber, the show will rely upon the audience to conjure up the visuals of the play guided by four voice actors while immersed in the utter dark. Directed by Ben Kemper and Andre Squerra. Free admission.

Using classical and contemporary theories of memory as inspiration, Fiber of Time enacts and critiques these theories while exploring the potentially analogous relationship between memory and fiber. Performers use expressive movement and collaboratively composed text to investigate the intersections of personal memory, cultural memory, and the human body. Directed by Jade Huell. Free admission.

Created and directed by Laurel Zoff Pelton. Free admission.

Created and performed by Elias Krell. Free admission.

Directed by Kantara Souffrant. Free admission.

Performances by Benton (Arif) Smith and Misty De Berry (PhD recital)

Teenagers from Mars is a punk rock coming of age story for anyone who ever felt like they didn't belong in high school. Directed by Layne Drinkwater. Free admission.