{"id":2,"date":"2026-07-09T11:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wigo.adu.hr\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2026-07-21T10:24:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T10:24:26","slug":"sample-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wigo.adu.hr\/","title":{"rendered":"Call for Proposals: DISPERFORMING EXCELLENCE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>International Transdisciplinary Conference<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb, Croatia<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>28 &#8211; 31 January 2027<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Within performance-oriented analyses of higher education (particularly art academies, theatre schools and dance programmes) institutions can be understood as&nbsp;<strong>performative and dramaturgical systems<\/strong>&nbsp;that script, rehearse and reproduce norms of embodiment, virtuosity, attention, productivity. Training regimes, audition formats, rehearsal structures, research interests and assessment criteria function as&nbsp;<strong>institutional dramaturgies.&nbsp;<\/strong>They are organising time, regulating bodies and defining what counts as artistic and academic excellence. These dynamics are inseparable from broader&nbsp;<strong>neoliberal conditions<\/strong>, in which higher education and artistic and academic production are increasingly structured by demands for efficiency, output, competitiveness, continuous self-optimization. At the same time, essentialist perspectives (often reasserting fixed notions of ability, talent, presence, artistic and academic worth) are again gaining traction, reinforcing exclusionary norms under the guise of neutrality or excellence.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is precisely here that disability and crip perspectives offer a critical intervention. Rather than positioning disabled and neurodivergent artists, students and researchers as recipients of accommodation, these approaches understand disability as a&nbsp;<strong>situated epistemic position:&nbsp;<\/strong>one from which the limits and exclusions of artistic, academic and educational systems become visible. Because disabled bodyminds often encounter friction within rehearsal rooms and pedagogical settings (through expectations of endurance, speed, sensory regulation or uninterrupted productivity) they are frequently the first to perceive where systems fail. In this sense, disability operates as&nbsp;<strong>a diagnostic of institutional dramaturgy<\/strong>, revealing how aesthetic values are entangled with ableist and neoliberal assumptions about time, labour, and the body. At the same time, practices developed in response to such frictions (whether in the form of flexible temporalities, alternative modes of participation or reconfigured environments) often extend their effects beyond their initial addressees, reshaping the conditions of work and engagement more broadly. From this perspective, the value of disability-informed practices doesn\u2019t lie in their capacity to \u201cinclude everyone,\u201d but in their ability to reveal and rework the underlying logics through which participation, productivity, research and artistic value are defined.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These dynamics also resonate with debates on relational autonomy, where autonomy is reconceptualised as something constituted through cooperation and interdependence. They challenge the alignment between artistic excellence and productivity, disrupt the expectation of continuous availability, open space for forms of making that are slower, discontinuous, and collectively sustained. Such an approach exposes the limits of institutional and aesthetic norms and proposes alternative modes of organising artistic labour\u2014ones that are less invested in autonomy and optimisation and more attuned to interdependence, care, and the possibility of not fully or consistently performing at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Concepts such as&nbsp;<em>crip time<\/em>&nbsp;(which resists linear, productivity-driven temporalities),&nbsp;<em>relaxed performance<\/em>&nbsp;(which reconfigures audience-performer relations and sensory expectations), and&nbsp;<em>access dramaturgy<\/em>&nbsp;(which integrates access as a generative element of artistic creation rather than an afterthought) demonstrate how disability-led practices propose&nbsp;<strong>alternative dramaturgies of performance and production<\/strong>. As Rosemarie Garland-Thomson has shown through the concept of misfitting, disability exposes the relational gap between bodies and environments; within artistic contexts, this gap reveals the implicit norms that structure participation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Engaging with contemporary debates on fair and sustainable production, this conference seeks to critically examine how neoliberal imperatives of productivity, speed, and measurable output shape artistic training, research practices and institutional life, and how they might be resisted or reconfigured. Disability perspectives foreground questions of&nbsp;<strong>pacing, care, interdependence and the distribution of labour<\/strong>, challenging dominant production models by&nbsp;<strong>rethinking rehearsal structures, authorship and expectations of availability<\/strong>. From this perspective disability actively re-scripts the dramaturgy of performance and production, opening up possibilities for more equitable and relational artistic and wider academic practices.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1. Temporalities of Artistic Work and Everyday Life<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>time in artistic practice (rhythm, slowness, interruption, waiting)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>temporalities of artists\u2019 and students\u2019 everyday lives<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>rehearsal and production processes that deviate from standard models<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cstalling,\u201d pause or slowness as artistic method<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>non-productivity, delay or breakdown as constitutive elements of work<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>performance as shared being (asynchronous, discontinuous, etc.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2. Institutional Practices and Infrastructures<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>everyday practices within artistic institutions (routines, invisible labor, micro-relations)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>experiences of working within institutions (academies, schools, collectives)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>institutional culture and implicit value systems<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>productivity pressures and forms of resistance<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>narratives of work, success, and value in artistic communities<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>models of work not based on constant availability and self-optimization<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>space and spatial practices (studios, classrooms, stages) as culturally structured environments<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">3. Body, Normativity, and Embodiment<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>the body and normativity in arts education<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>the body as a site of cultural and social formation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>fatigue, endurance and limits in performance practices<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>affects, emotions and sensory experiences in artistic work<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">4. Disability, Access, and Alternative Frameworks<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>experiences of disability and neurodivergence in different contexts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>relations between accessibility and artistic process<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>pedagogies of access\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>crip-phenomenological approaches to artistic and theoretical production<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>quality of life as an epistemological turn beyond fixing and optimization<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">5. Social Relations, Care, and Power<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>care, interdependence, and collectivity as practices<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>hierarchies, power relations, and negotiations in artistic processes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>marginality, visibility and representation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>relational autonomy in artistic production and education<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">6. Creativity, Failure, and Non-Conformity<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>failure, stagnation or \u201cmisfitting\u201d as creative potential<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>experimental, hybrid, research and artistic formats<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>alternative narratives on success and value in artistic and research communities<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>marginality, visibility and representation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>performance as joint being (asynchronicity, discontinuity)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">7. Theoretical Research and Knowledge Practices<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>theoretical work as part of artistic practice and education<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>writing, reading, and thinking as forms of practice<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>temporalities of theoretical research (delay, interruption, accumulation)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>theory as situated, embodied and relational activity<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>relations between artistic practice and conceptual production<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>collaborative and dialogical forms of theorizing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>tensions between academic productivity and slow research<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">8. Methodological Approaches<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>ethnographic and participatory approaches<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>experimental, hybrid and artistic-research formats<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>methodologies committed to epistemic justice<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>comparative perspectives on arts education and production<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Crucially, this shift entails moving away from a model of artistic labour organised around the efficient transformation of \u201cmaterial\u201d toward an understanding of rehearsal and production as sites in which the&nbsp;<strong>very conditions of work are reconfigured<\/strong>. Here, the space of rehearsal becomes variable, temporalities detach from linear progress and productivity, and&nbsp;<strong>the performer is no longer conceived as interchangeable within a professionalised system<\/strong>. Instead, attention turns to the distribution of attention, rhythms, responsibility, and to performance as a form of&nbsp;<strong>being-together<\/strong>&nbsp;that may be asynchronous, discontinuous, or even non-functional. In this sense, what might appear as delay, interruption, or failure becomes constitutive of the work itself. Drawing on Jack Halberstam\u2019s understanding of the notion of&nbsp;<em>anarchitecture<\/em>, such an approach suggests ongoing reconfiguration of structure from perspectives that foreground different embodiments, dependencies, and temporalities. Within this framework, performance opens the possibility for&nbsp;<strong>non-production, pause, indeterminacy<\/strong>&nbsp;as meaningful artistic and pedagogical acts, while simultaneously rethinking how time is organised, how labour is distributed, and what counts as contribution. Such a perspective invites further engagement with questions of crip spatiality, as well as with critiques of authenticity, by challenging the assumption that artistic value resides in coherence or continuity and instead locating it withinunstable and collectively negotiated processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Relevant fields and approaches include (but are not limited to)<\/strong>: Performance Studies, Disability Studies, Crip Theory, Critical University Studies, Arts Education, Artistic Research, Critical Pedagogy, Feminist Theory, Queer Theory, Decolonial Studies<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Deadline for proposals:&nbsp;<strong>15 August 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Notification of acceptance:&nbsp;<strong>5 September 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We welcome proposals for&nbsp;individual papers, pre-constituted panels, lecture-performances, workshops, artistic interventions, practice-based research presentations, performative lectures, conversation formats, listening sessions, experimental pedagogical formats, walks, installations, participatory encounters, durational projects, and other contributions that engage critically with the conference themes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Proposal format: 300 words proposal and 100 words bio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Please send your proposals to&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:una@adu.hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">una@adu.hr<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:rbrajsa@adu.hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rbrajsa@adu.hr<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The conference is part of the research-artistic project on inclusion, epistemologies of resistance, and justice in the performing arts, What is going on? (WIGO). The project is funded by European Union &#8211; NextGenerationEU.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>International Transdisciplinary Conference Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb, Croatia 28 &#8211; 31 January 2027 Within performance-oriented analyses of higher education (particularly art academies, theatre schools and dance programmes) institutions can be understood as&nbsp;performative and dramaturgical systems&nbsp;that script, rehearse and reproduce norms of embodiment, virtuosity, attention, productivity. Training regimes, audition formats, rehearsal structures, research [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wigo.adu.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wigo.adu.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wigo.adu.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wigo.adu.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wigo.adu.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wigo.adu.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8,"href":"https:\/\/wigo.adu.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wigo.adu.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}