FFF2 | Art, politics and the “social turn”: Reconsidering the role of aesthetics in contemporary human geographies

Christopher Balme

Christopher Balme currently holds the chair in theatre studies at the University of Munich and is president of the International Federation for Theatre Research. He was born and educated in New Zealand where he graduated from the University of Otago. He has lived and worked in Germany since 1985 with positions at the universities of Würzburg, Munich and Mainz. From 2004 to 2006 he held the chair in theatre studies at the University of Amsterdam. Recent publications include Decolonizing the Stage: "Theatrical syncretism and postcolonial drama", (Oxford, 1999), "Pacific Performances: Theatricality and Cross-Cultural Encounter in the South Seas" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), "The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Studies" (Cambridge University Press, 2008) and "The theatrical public sphere" (Cambridge University Press, 2014). His current research interests focus on the legacy of modernism in the globalization of the arts; theatre and the public sphere; the relationship between media and performance.

Shannon Jackson

Shannon Jackson is Director of the Arts Research Center and Goldman Professor of Rhetoric and of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her books include "Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics" (Routledge, 2011), "Professing Performance: Theatre in the Academy from Philology to Performativity" (Cambridge University Press, 2004), "Lines of Activity: Performance, Historiography, Hull-House Domesticity" (University of Michigan Press 2000), and forthcoming from M.I.T. Press, "The Builders Association: Performance and Media in Contemporary Theater". Currently she is creating an edited collection of keywords in contemporary art and performance in collaboration with the Pew Center for Art and Heritage, and is working on a book on cross-art coalition with the working title, "The Way We Perform Now". Jackson has received many honors, including a 2015 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.

Katia Arfara

Katia Arfara is an Athens-based researcher, writer, teacher and curator. She holds an MA in theatre studies (Athens University) and a PhD in art history (Sorbonne University). Her essays at the crossroads of performing and visual arts have appeared in various journals and critical anthologies. She has lectured extensively in France and Greece. Dr Arfara is a associate researcher at the Centre for the History and Theory of the arts (EHESS, Paris). Since 2009 she has been the theater and dance artistic director at the Onassis Stegi. She is the author of the book "Théâtralités contemporaines" (2011).