NEW HORIZONS – RACE AND PERFORMANCE:

KEYNOTES:

James Ijames MFA, 2023 Pulitzer Prize Winner for his play Fat Ham
https://www.jamesijames.com/

Justine Nakase Ph.D., theatre maker and scholar based in Portland, OR. She received her PhD from the University of Galway, where her research focused on race and identity in contemporary Irish performance.

This conference invites interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary scholars and artists, including but not limited to: theatre and literary historians, dramaturgs, anthropologists, cultural critics, casting agents, and theatre administrators engaged or interested in Irish identity in theatre and performance. The conference aims to advance the centuries old dialogue of race and identity in Irish culture and representation, with an emphasis on current evolutions in identity and multiculturalism. We hope to explore new horizons by asking questions such as, but not limited to: How has the postcolonial narrative evolved in Irish drama and performance and is it still applicable? Is it possible that the repetition of narratives of oppression have locked artistic expression in the theatre into limitations of realism and identity, thus limiting the possibilities of more diverse practices and more diverse articulations of identity? Is Irish theatre and performance racist? What is beginning to emerge in the expression of Irish theatre and performance? What is actually happening in Irish theatre, and what more still needs to happen in response to diversity and inclusion? New Horizons welcomes new epistemologies, practices, and emergent possibilities in all aspects of theatre and performance.