3rd INTERNATIONAL SCENARIO FORUM CONFERENCE 2024  

 > Presence in Performative Teaching, Learning and Research < 

School of Education, Trinity College Dublin, 9–11 May 2024

For a printout version go to: 
CfP - Scenario Forum Conference 2024 - pdf

For the Scenario 2024 conference, we invite contributions that investigate the notion of presence in performative teaching, learning and research. 

Presence is a cornerstone of performative education, an approach that emphasises forms of aesthetic expression (Schewe, 2013). When discussing language teacher education, Even (2020) states: “Being present is a fundamental requirement for any teacher: developing the intuition to decide what is needed in a given situation and welcoming the unpredictability of learning processes” (p. 10). 

In Performative in a Nutshell, Schewe (2020) offers a list of terms representing each letter of the word PERFORMATIVE. The first item, listed under the first letter, P, is presence. In a later publication, the PERFORMATIVE acronym is further condensed, with presence connected to aesthetic experience and defined as “a state of heightened awareness often noted in performers, teachers, and young children engaged in deep play. It is an active state of receptivity where ideas can flow into action” (Piazzoli & Schewe, 2023, p. 79).  

So if one holds the belief that performative presence can enhance engagement, how can a sense of presence be cultivated in the language classroom? What are its effects, challenges and dynamics? As Coonfield and Rose (2012) highlight, presence emerges from, and thrives, in the energy generated among performer, text, and audience. 

Accordingly, we would define presence not as just a quality of an individual, but rather as a reciprocal quality between learners, teacher and text. In this sense, co-presence (Fischer-Lichte, 2008), may emerge whenever aesthetic synergy is generated between all social actors in the classroom.  

Forty years ago, Greene (1984) called for educators to cultivate the art of being present, to awaken to a sense of present-ness. What does this mean today, in the current educational landscape, characterised by a post-pandemic, hybrid environment? As educators, we cannot assume that presence is automatically part of classrooms due to the presence of our bodies in a shared space; nor can we deny that presence may be cultivated in online educational spaces, as Ucok-Sayrak and Brazelton (2022) argue.  

We invite authors to reflect on the various complexities of embodying presence in the fields of language teacher education (Even, 2020; Schewe, 2020) aesthetic education (Greene, 1984) theatre and performance studies (Barba, 1995; Fischer-Lichte, 2008, 2012, 2023), online learning (Ucok-Sayrak & Brazelton, 2022; Juncan, 2022), philosophy (Gumbrecht, 2004; Nancy, 2022), applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, and beyond.  

We welcome contributions from scholars, researchers, teacher educators, teachers as well as artists and practitioners in arts-based disciplines and professional fields of practice. These can be in the form of 20-minute papers, 90-minute workshops, short films, performance pieces and poster presentations (forms not listed here may also be considered) investigating one or more of the following aspects: 

• Presence, body and language teaching and learning 
• Cultivating performative presence in language teacher education 
• Presence, accent and voice 
• Presence in the creative writing of and performing of texts  
• Presence in multilingual education 
• Presence in different school/university subjects 
• Presence in digital spaces: challenges, opportunities 
• Presence in the performative arts, including theatre, music, film, dance 
• Co-presence and improvisation 
• Presence, vulnerability and identity 

Proposals in either English, German or Italian should consist of an abstract (max. 250 words) and a short bio (max. 75 words). Please send your proposal by October 30, 2023, to the expression of interest form, here. The selection panel will meet soon after this date and inform selected contributors in due course. It is envisaged that selected papers will be considered for publication after editorial and blind peer review in either SCENARIO journal or in the SCENARIO book series. For details on the SCENARIO PROJECT, including information on previous symposia, colloquia and conferences see http://scenario.ucc.ie. For updates on our International Scenario Forum 2024 Conference click here. 

The conference is organised by the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin. Organising Team: Erika Piazzoli (Trinity College Dublin), Dragan Miladinović, Manfred Schewe, Fionn Woodhouse (University College Cork), Susanne Even (Indiana University, Bloomington), Fiona Dalziel (University of Padua), Eucharia Donnery (Soka University,Tokyo). 

References  

Barba, E. (1995). The paper canoe: A guide to theatre anthropology (R. Fowler Trans.). Routledge. 

Coonfield, G., & Rose, H. (2012). What is called presence. Text and Performance Quarterly, 32(3), 192-208. https://doi.org/10.1080/10462937.2012.691309  

Even, S. (2020). Presence and unpredictability in teacher education. Scenario: A Journal for Performative Teaching, Learning, Research, 14(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.33178/scenario.14.1.1   

Fischer-Lichte, E. (2008). The transformative power of performance: A new aesthetics. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203894989  

Fischer-Lichte, E. (2012). Appearing as embodied mind-defining a weak, a strong and a radical concept of presence. In G. Giannachi, N. Kaye & M. Shanks (Eds.), Archaeologies of presence (pp. 103-118). Routledge. 

Fischer-Lichte, E. (2023). Aesthetic knowledge and aesthetic experience. In E. Fischer-Lichte, T. Jost, M. Kosic & A. Schenka (Eds.), Performance Cultures as Epistemic Cultures, Volume I (pp. 101-125). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003372837-7 

Greene, M. (1984). The art of being present: Educating for aesthetic encounters. Journal of Education, 166(2), 123-135. https://doi.org/10.1177/002205748416600203  

Gumbrecht, H. U. (2004). Production of presence: What meaning cannot convey. Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804767149  

Jucan, I. B. (2022). Digitally live: Performative presence in times of Covid-19. Performance Paradigm, 17, 24-48. 

Nancy, J. L. (2022). The birth to presence. Stanford University Press. 

Piazzoli, E., & Schewe, M. (2023). Arts education in Ireland: Visions of a performative teaching, learning and research culture. Journal de recherche en éducations artistiques, 1, 72-83. https://doi.org/10.26034/vd.jrea.2023.3586 

Schewe, M. (2013). Taking stock and looking ahead: Drama pedagogy as a gateway to a performative teaching and learning culture. Scenario: A Journal for Drama and Theatre in Foreign and Second Language Education, 7(1), 5-27. https://doi.org/10.33178/scenario.7.1.2 

Schewe, M. (2020). Performative in a nutshell. Scenario: A Journal for Performative Teaching, Learning, Research, 14(1), 103-110. https://doi.org/10.33178/scenario.14.1.7 

Ucok-Sayrak, O., & Brazelton, N. (2022). Regarding the question of presence in online education: A performative pedagogical perspective. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 54(2), 131-144. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2021.1880389