PoP turns 10: Celebrating the Popular, Practicing the Urban: Call for Papers

A reminder about the Call for Papers for the annual PoP MOVES conference on Saturday 18th November 2017. This year is a special one as it is also our 10 year birthday! The deadline is Friday 7th July.

PoP turns 10: Celebrating the Popular, Practicing the Urban

Saturday, 18th November 2017

University of East London, Stratford, London, U.K

 The PoP [Performances of the Popular] Moves committee, in partnership with the CPAD research group at the University of East London, is now inviting submissions for the 2017 conference

Call for Papers

Ten years after the UK’s first popular performance conference, PoP MOVES, the international research group for performances of the popular, continues to advance the field through cross-institution sharing whilst creating space for rich discussions between scholars, students, performers and practitioners.

Also celebrating its 10th year, the University of East London’s BA (Hons) Dance: Urban Practice degree continues to break the mould of traditional dance degrees. Inspired by the cultural vibrancy and diversity of East London, the programme offers students the opportunity to practice, perform, and theorise hip-hop, club, social and popular styles, contemporary techniques from across Europe and the African and Asian diasporas, and classical and martial movement traditions.

To celebrate these decennial milestones, this conference asks scholars, practitioners and artists to engage with the intersections between popular practices and the Urban: the city as a space where culture is created, represented and disputed.

 

Some key areas and questions to consider include:

The Urban Landscape

·         What are the risks and opportunities that Urban environments provide for the emergence, spread and survival of popular practices?

·         How do the designs of city spaces converge or diverge with popular performance? How do practices gain currency through this relationship?

 

The Urban Jungle

·         How do different migrations and communities who have helped shape urban identity engage with popular practices?

·         What are the ways in which the urban intersects with race and class, and how does this shape and evolve popular practices?

·         How do notions of hybridity and cultural exchange operate between the Urban and the popular?

·         How might popular practices operate with the political in occasions of mass protest and Urban activism?

 

Urban Regeneration

·         How do popular practices operate historically within Urban environments?

·         How might Urban environments create opportunities for the revival of popular practices?

·         How does cultural memory intersect with popular practice in city environments?

Urban Gentrification

·         How do popular performance practices legitimize and negate Urban gentrification?

·         Who is priced out of popular dance and music practices, and to what effect?

·         What are the cultural effects of digital technologies upon popular performance in Urban contexts?

·         What are the representations of city and bodies on screen?

 

Urban Decay

·         How do notions of deprivation and decline impact upon popular practices?

·         To what extent does the vibrancy of moving bodies rupture ideas of deprivation and degeneration?  

·         What are the risks and possibilities of clubbing in the wake of nightclub closures?

More Information: https://popmoves.com/archive/november-2017-conference/