UpSideDown – Circus and Space International Conference Calls for Research Papers

Zirkus|Wissenschaft seeks to anchor circus in university research and coursework. The project aims to establish the University of Münster as a long-term international meeting place for circensic researchers from Germany and abroad, as well as to set up an international scholarly network.

UpSideDown examines the question of space in the context of traditional, new, and contemporary circus through the lens of semiotics. Topics such as Liminal Spaces, Theories of Place and Space, Borders and Border Crossing, Performing in and Mapping Space, and Transnational Spaces may also be considered.

“In acrobatics, we say that we are lost, that is, we do not know whether it’s the top or the bottom, whether we are climbing or falling.” – Acrobates

The conference aims to deepen the knowledge obtained at the previous conference “Semiotics of the Circus” (2015), which was also organized by the research project Zirkus|Wissenschaft at the University of Münster, Germany.

The organizers invite proposals for papers that inquire into the following topics concerning questions of circus and space:

• Ring, stage, street—Circus performance spaces
• Boundaries, barriers, horizons—Circus and mobility
• Horizontality, verticality, gravity—Body movement and space
• Borders, orders, shifts—Circus and semantic spaces
• Constructs, configuration, practice—Circus and cultural spaces

Please send 300 – 500 word proposals and a short narrative CV to [email protected] by March 15, 2017 to the attention of Franziska Trapp.

The conference will be held between June 28–30, 2017 at the University of Münster, Germany and it is open to the public. (Registration via www.zirkuswissenschaft.de) Keynotes speakers will include Prof. Dr. Paul Bouissac, Toronto; Prof. Dr. Louis-Patrick Leroux, Montréal; Prof. Dr. Philippe Goudard, Montpellier; Prof. Dr. Peta Tait, Melbourne.

Photo: Franzi Kreis