TaPRA 2025 Conference
27-29 August 2025
University of Warwick
Milestones and Markers
In 2025, we invite you to join us at Warwick to celebrate and reflect on two significant milestones. The Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA)Link opens in a new window turns 20 this year, while Theatre and Performance Studies at Warwick is celebrating its 50thbirthday (and we’re going to celebrate it in style!). Our conference will provide an opportunity for former, current and new TaPRA members to collectively consider the past and futures of the organisation, our discipline and their place in higher education. Although we face challenging times, we mustn't forget the importance of celebrating and advocating for our discipline and our work. We should remember just how far we've come together; to be mindful and respectful of those who have come before us, their methodologies and approaches; and to champion and support the next generation of scholars and the work that lays ahead for them. Our conference keynotes, plenary panels, artistic activity, conference dinner and programmed events will speak to the themes of milestones and markers, focussing on celebrations, festivities, spectacle and joy.
We look forward to welcoming delegates back to the West Midlands – a region that TaPRA last visited in 2015, when it was hosted by the University of Worcester. In the last five years, our region has played host to cultural events of national and international importance, with Coventry holding the title of UK City of Culture in 2021-22 and Birmingham hosting the Commonwealth Games and its accompanying cultural programme in 2022. Despite the financial failure of the City of Culture and significant cuts to arts funding in Birmingham, there are things to celebrate. The region continues to benefit from the legacies of this substantial investment, with transformed city centres and vibrant cultural offerings, which we hope to find ways for you to experience during TaPRA 2025.
The conference itself will be campus-based, and to get the most out of it, we strongly encourage you to book the on-campus bed and breakfast accommodation. We have ensuite rooms available in Bluebell – a student hall which (trust us) is nothing like the university halls we might have experienced. They're very nice! We also have the 4-star campus hotels available to book, for those who are less keen on reliving their student days.
Conference activity will take place across Warwick’s Cultural Quarter, which includes our new Faculty of Arts Building (opened in 2022),the Oculus Teaching and Learning building (opened in 2016), and Warwick Arts Centre (fully re-opened after major re-development in 2022).
We'll look forward to welcoming you to Warwick in August 2025!
Please see our conference webpages here.