Symposium

Friday 30 January / Film and Drama Studio (FADS), Arts Two Building (Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, E1 4NS) 

09:30 – 10:00 Registration (Location: FADS, Arts Two)

10:00 Welcome and Introductions

10:10 (Panel 1) Dialectics of Nature

• Prof Peter Billingham (University of Winchester), ‘“The Mobius Effect:” Beyond the Binary Boundaries of Dialectical Materialist Analysis’
• Camilla Royle (King’s College London), ‘Complexity, Change and Action: The Dialectical Biologists’
• Chair: TBC

11:05 – 11:20 Coffee Break

11:20 (Panel 2) Performing Temporalities

• Katja Geerts (University of Antwerp), ‘Performing Temporalities: Slow Motion as a Dialectical Method in the Choreosophical Work of Rudolf Laban’
• Dr Simon Bowes (University of Greenwich), ‘Diachrony and Heterotopia: Temporality in Kings of England’s Where We Live & What We Live For’
• Chair: Eleanor Massie (Queen Mary)

12:15 (Panel 3) Dialectics and Pedagogy

• Performance Lecture: Dr Katja Hilevaara (Queen Mary) & Dr Emily Orley (University of Roehampton), ‘Making Making Matter: A dialogue about performance and scholarship’
• Provocation Panel: What role can dialectics play in contemporary pedagogy? Respondents: Jenny Duffy (Northumbria University)/ Sarah McCormack (Independent Scholar)/ Eve Wedderburn (Middlesex University)
• Chair: Dr Bridget Escolme (Queen Mary)

13:20 – 14:20 Lunch

14:20 (Panel 4) Materiality of Urban Space

• Dr Campbell Edinborough (University of Hull), ‘Constructing Dialectical Images in Sound and Space: Adapting Walter Benjamin’s The Arcades Project’
• Cecilie Sachs Olsen (Queen Mary), ‘Materiality as Performance’
• Chair: Dr Michael Shane Boyle (Queen Mary)

15:15 – 15:30 Coffee break

15:30 (Panel 5) Postdramatic Dialectics

• Dave Calvert (University of Huddersfield), ‘“Everything has a fucking value”: Negative Dialectics in Back to Back’s small metal objects’
• Verónica Rodríguez (University of Barcelona), ‘“Tearing a Hole Through Everything and Everyone”: David Greig’s Theatre’s Dialectics’
• Dr Michael Shane Boyle (Queen Mary), ‘Performance and Dialectical Innovation’
• Chair: Philip Watkinson (Queen Mary)

16:45 (Panel 6) Brecht and Political Performance

• Shane Kinghorn (Manchester Metropolitan University), ‘Speaking machines: the dialectical voice in contemporary verbatim’
• Dr Christina Papagiannouli (University of South Wales), ‘Directing Dialectics: The Director as Discussion Facilitator’
• Chair: TBC

17:40 – 18:00 Closing Remarks

Convenors: Eleanor Massie & Philip Watkinson

Co-convenor: Hayley Peacock

Performing Dialectics is being hosted by the Departments of Drama and Geography. The event has been generously funded by Queen Mary’s Departments of Drama and Geography; the Arts & Culture Fund; and the Doctorial College Initiative Fund.