Cultures of the Left » News and Events

Staging Feminism: Elaine Aston in Conversation with Janelle Reinelt

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 13:12:00 GMT

Cultures of the Left feature the new monograph by Elaine Aston 'Staging Feminism':

Prof. Elaine Aston was in conversation with Prof. Janelle Reinelt

Chaired by: Prof. Bishnuprya Dutt

Migrations and the Pandemic

Wed, 01 Jul 2020 18:00:00 GMT

How do we foreground methodologies of migration in transnational context and also in the context of COVID?

How does the image of migrant worker emerge as a symbol of migration in context of the pandemic?

How do migration processes reconfigure and reinforce internal and external boarders?

These are just some of the questions we have grappled with in our session on Migration and Pandemic, curated by Dr Ameet Parameswaram (JNU, New Delhi).

Our speakers in order of appearance:

Professor Yana Meerzon, (University of Ottawa, Canada)

Dr Indu Jain, (Janki Devi Memorial College, New Delhi)

Theatre Director, educator and filmmaker, Anamika Haksar (India)

Professor of Economics and musician Sumangala Damodaran (Ambedkar University, New Delhi)

Professor of Sociology and author Ari Sitas (University of Cape Town, SA)

Professor Peter W. Marx (University of Cologne, Germany)

Works that we have read, viewed and listed to for this session:

1. Discussion "Do Black Live Matter in Europe":
https://zoom.us/rec/play/vJwqc-j8qT03G9TDsASDC_N9W464Lf2shCQa_6BczBu0WiELNVagZLMWNre25lRkIfrPA4E1LnpTQpdD?continueMode=true

2. Here's piece with embedded songs from Sumangala Damodaran:

https://thewire.in/the-arts/migrant-workers-covid-19-lockdown-songs-about-migration

3. Trailers of Anamika Haksar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE60CnSIxEg&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE60CnSIxEg&feature=youtu.be
https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=M23_03Gk4OA

To watch/listen to our session please click below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knktfyDbLpM

Theatre & the Political in the Age of the Global Pandemic

Mon, 15 Jun 2020 18:02:00 GMT

- What happens to political dimensions of theatre (and to political theatre as such) in this circumstances?
- Can theatre/ performance be political when theatres are shut and the audience can’t congregate in the ‘here and now’? And if so, in what form?

- Is this situation forcing artists to think about new forms of theatre making and/or theatre curating? What is the socio-political role of theatre in this moment?

- Can we perhaps envisage what/how a post-pandemic theatre might be?

These are some of the questions our illustrious panel of speakers have addressed (in order of appearance):

Janelle Reinelt - Emeritus Professor of Theatre and Performance, Warwick University (UK/USA)

Moloyashree Hashmi - performer, co-founder of the renown theatre company Janam (India)

Duska Radosavljevic - dramaturge, theatre critic, scholar, Central School of Speech and Drama (London, UK)

Maya Krishna Rao - theatre maker, educator, artistic director of Vismayah theatre company (India)

Mark Fleishman - theatre director, scholar, artistic director of Magnet Theatre, University of Cape Town (South Africa)

For this session we've read: :https://medium.com/@nicholasberger/the-forgotten-art-of-assembly-a94e164edf0f

For this session we've viewed: Maya Rao's 'Lockdown Stories'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3w89JrHo3Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PCvo-FVniU

To view our discussion please click on the link below:

watch

Cultures of the Left: Global Pandemic and Gender

Sun, 31 May 2020 20:26:00 GMT

We have gathered a stellar group of scholars to discuss issues of gender and pandemic including:

Elin Diamond (Rutgers University, NJ)

Lisa Fitzpatrick (Ulster University)

Olivera Jokic (CUNY, NY)

Anuradha Kapur ( Ambedkar University, New Delhi)

Nivedita Menon (JNU, New Delhi)

Shirin Rai (Warwick University)

Urmimala Sarkar (JNU, New Delhi)

The session was hosted by Bishnupriya Dutt (JNU, New Delhi)

For this session we have read:

1) The Coming Insurrection, a text produced by The Invisible Committee, a group of French radicals arrested for planning an attack on rail lines but also for having written The Coming Insurrection in 2007 (translated into English, published by Semiotext(e) in 2009).
https://radicalimagination.institute/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/dienst-2012-1.pdf

2) (http://www.cps.iitb.ac.in/surviving-a-shadow-pandemic-domestic-abuse-in-the-time-of-covid-19/)

3) The Fawcett Society (www.fawcettsociety.org.uk) has been gathering information and responding to the impact of Covid-19 on women in Britain, and have some online conversations with experts in different fields. This is the discussion of women, work and welfare: https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/Event/struggling-to-survive-women-work-and-welfare

4) An essay by Olga Tokarczuk, on the pandemic https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-new-world-through-my-window

5) Women's research plummets during lockdown - but articles from men increase (https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/may/12/womens-research-plummets-during-lockdown-but-articles-fr).

6) The Coming Insurrection, a text produced by The Invisible Committee, a group of French radicals arrested for planning an attack on rail lines but also for having written The Coming Insurrection in 2007 (translated into English, published by Semiotext(e) in 2009).
https://radicalimagination.institute/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/dienst-2012-1.pdf

For this session we have watched:

1) A short film by Nandita Das made few days back on this issue. (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=scwYray2Dsk&feature=youtu.be)

2) A wonderful performance directed by our own Anuradha Kapur Dark Things (dir: Anuradha Kapur and Deepan Sivaraman, music :Sumangala Damodaran, text : ( https://youtu.be/ipDzm8f3LM4)

3) SSER Lecture idea lecture series ; Gendered Global Macro-economics of Covid 19 by Jayati Ghosh (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdWA0CcM5AA)/ 14 May 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIe26K7juuM

Cultures of the Left in the time of the Pandemic 28th May 2020

Watch SpaceX Live: Second Launch America - Mission To Space from the Kennedy Space Center ABC News 76,906 watching Live now

www.youtube.com

Cultures of the Left in the Time of the Pandemic - 1st May 2020

Sun, 03 May 2020 16:52:00 GMT

This is the first in our series of conversations under the working title "Cultures of the Left in the time of the Pandemic". This first session held on May 1st, The International Workers' Day included our JNU partners Bishnupriya Dutt and Ameet Parameswaram joining us from New Delhi, Emine Fisek from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Olivera Jokic form CUNY, New York, Igor Stiks from the Faculty of Media and Communication in Belgrade, and Milija Gluhovic and Silvija Jestrovic of SCAPVC tuning in from Birmingham and Leamington Spa, respectively. The following three articles were our point of departure:

Judith Butler

https://contactos.tome.press/human-traces-on-the-surfaces-of-the-world/

Slavoj Zizek

ttps://www.welt.de/kultur/literarischewelt/article206829259/Slavoj-Zizek-on-Corona-Barbarism-with-a-Human-Face.html

Arundhati Roy

https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca

'Performing Worksites of the Left' - our Studies in Theatre and Performance Journal special issue is now out!

Fri, 29 Nov 2019 12:50:00 GMT

Edited by Silvija Jestrovic and Ameet Parameswaram, this special issue explores how theatre and performance offer ways of seeing and experiencing the Leftist thought-in-action: as it unfolds within specific time/space frameworks, through distinct rhythms and on different scales, as accumulated critical legacy of the past, and how it exposes new forms of inequalities in the present. 'Performing Worksites of the Left' covers a range of case studies from UK, India, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Germany, featuring contributions from: Milija Gluhovic, Bishupriya Dutt, Silvija Jestrovic, Ameet Parameswaram, Janelle Reinelt, and Igor Stiks, as well as the original cover artwork by Dragan Todorovic.

Our special issue is available in print and on-line:

https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rstp20/current

Cultures of the Left in the Age of Right-Wing Populism - Call for Papers

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 15:59:00 GMT

This conference asks how could both the historical legacy of the Left and its current manifestations and performances contribute to formulating an aesthetic of resistance not only as a reactive practice, but as a way to sustain the politics of inclusion, equality, care for the commons and social justice? We invite contributions from different geographical and political contexts including Latin American, African and Asian countries, as well as case studies from areas that we have been researched more closely within our project: India, Europe, USA.

The conference will take place from April 15th-17th, 2019, at the premises of Warwick University in Venice.

700 word abstracts and short bios to be sent by January 8th, 2019 to s.jestrovic@warwick.ac.uk.

Looking For the Left in San Francisco - blog now available

Thu, 14 Sep 2017 12:53:58 GMT

Janelle Reinelt's blog, in which she explores the political content of the de Young 'Summer of Love' exhibition, 2017, is now available to read here. The is the first in a series of three 'dispatches' reporting on California locations that are shaping up to be major political flash points in the Trump era.

Cultures of the Left at PSi (Performance Studies international), Hamburg June 7-11

Tue, 25 Jul 2017 16:59:52 GMT

Our partnership project was featured in two curated panels: Cultures of the Left: Aesthetics and Politics and Political Theatres and Performances of Resistance.

Cultures of the Left: Manifestations and Performances Colloquium June 5th and 6th (Supported by British Academy and Connecting Cultures GRP)

Tue, 27 Jun 2017 11:11:26 GMT

On the anniversary of the October Revolution, questions of the Left have been re-emerging as timely and urgent. This colloquium explores how to live and do Leftist politics in response to injustices of our own time.