performing under pressure

A conference on Life, Labor and Art in the Academy

April 13 & 14, 2012

Granoff Center for the Creative Arts

Brown University

We work here. But where is “here,” and how do we define the work that we do? Beginning with these questions about the corporate university, “Performing Under Pressure” intends to make visible the work of students and scholars (when most academics don’t call themselves workers).

Featuring diverse panels, a cabaret, a free form long-table discussion, and keynote speakers Patricia Ybarra (Brown University), Nicholas Ridout (Queen Mary University), and artist, director, and performer Janez Janša, this conference enjoins participants and attendees to consider the stakes of immaterial, affective, and artistic labor within the shifting infrastructure of the academy.  From actors to scientists, from studios to libraries, from internet to archive, we’ll consider the myriad and changing challenges facing attempts to value and define university work, and the impact of these challenges on collaboration and organization among university employees.

This event is made possible by the Creative Arts Council, the Graduate International Colloquium Fund, the John Nicholas Brown Center, the Sarah Doyle Women’s Center, and the Departments of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, Comparative Literature, and Africana Studies.