(Re)Thinking the Arts in Wartime Today: Ukraine, Hungary, and Russia in Theater Studies and Beyond

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

This roundtable explores how research in theater and performance has shifted since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The participants present differing experiences and positionalities from which to explore this question: scholars of theater, literature, and opera; teachers of theater, language, and history, in big cities and small towns; practitioners in the arts and scholars of the arts; focusing on Hungary, Ukraine, and Russia. We are interested in how the full-scale invasion has impacted the field of theater and performance studies, how artists in the region have responded, and how we engage in, teach, and present theater and performance in our jobs in North America. What are the bridges and the breaks between communities of artists, and between communities of scholars, and between scholars and artists? What are the disciplinary boundaries and fluidities between theater studies, history, and literature, and how do these disciplines shape our work? Finally, what might be the possibilities for political performances in extreme times? Aniko Szucs is a dramaturg and performance studies scholar focusing on Hungary and neighboring states; Lenora Murphy is a scholar of Russian language and literature focusing on theater and state power; Kathleen Manukyan is a scholar of Ukrainian, Czech, and Russian opera and opera singer; Mayhill Fowler is a historian of theater in Ukraine and a former actress.

Sub Unit

• Arts II: Music, Theater, Performance Studies

Chair

• Oksana Dudko, U of Toronto (Canada)

Roundtable Members

• Mayhill C. Fowler, Stetson U

• Kathleen Manukyan, U of Pittsburgh

• Lenora Murphy, Bucknell U

• Aniko Szucs, CUNY Queens College