Movement, Somatics and Writing: A Practice-Based Research Symposium, University of Michigan Call

Call for Fellowship Applications:
Movement, Somatics and Writing: A Practice-Based Research Symposium

February 18th/19th2010, Duderstadt Video Performance Studio, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Conference Team:

Amy Sara Carroll, Assistant Professor of English and American Culture (Latina/o Studies), UM

Thom Donovan, poet and essayist, co-editor of ON: Contemporary Practice and the weblog Wild Horses Of Fire

Kate Elswit, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow (Drama/Dance), Stanford University

Bhanu Kapil, Assistant Professor, Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Naropa University (Cross-Genre Narrative and Poetics)

Jina Kim, PhD student, English/Women's Studies, UM (VisualCulture)

Petra Kuppers, Associate Professor of English, UM (Performance Studies)

Eleni Stecopoulos, poet, writer, educator, curator of the Poetics of Healing project at the Poetry Center, San Francisco State University

In our fourth arts-basedinquiry symposium (after Anarcha: African American culture/DisabilityCulture/Medical Ethics; Touching Time: Bodies/Writing/Histories; Eco-Performance) we want to build on the inter- or transdisciplinary methods explored so far, and invite scholars and artists to engage in experimental writing and art practice at the sites/cites of the moving, living body and themoving, living text.

We invite up to ten fellows (graduate students, faculty, independent artistsand writers) to come together for two days, to workshop, to use performancesand presentations as provocations, and to plumb methods of merging art practiceand critical writing . The specific topics we will address are yet to be determined by applicants' interests. But, to date, this symposium's foci include or relate to innovative methodologies, writing-as-practice, somatics/embodiment, breath poetics, prosodic magic, language limit zones, conceptual –isms, skin and membranes, mixed media and metaphors, the ethics of touch and movement, enjambed spacetime, transitions and becoming ______ .

We will be in praxis together: this is not a conference to share the results of previous research or practice. Thus, we are not looking for papers, performances, portfolios, or readings; we plan to experiment. Come and share the excitement of your creative and critical research, present a workshop based on your passions, and find out what could happen...

Each invitee will have transport and accommodation costs reimbursed up to $200 dollars. The conference hotel offers rooms for about sixty dollars a night, and we will assist people who want to be hosted by graduate students.

Application Process: please send a short CV, a sample of your writing(creative, experimental, performative or critical), and a brief statement about why you would like to participate, to petra [at] umich [dot] edu. You can also send URLs or a DVD or CD with performance or visual arts material. Query first about snail mail address by emailing the symposium director: Petra Kuppers, petra [at] umich [dot] edu.

Deadline: October 1, 2010 Notification: October 20, 2010