UPCOMING

Thursday February 21

Doing Gender and Why Theatre? have joined forces in order to discuss:

The Performance of the Impossible Body with Soledad Falabella Luco (Universidad de Chile)

Thursday February 21, 2013 Studio T (Kromme Nieuwegracht 20, Utrecht) 16.00hrs

Soledad Falabella describes herself as an "academic and cultural activist". She is committed to developing creative ways to promote social change by combining pedagogy, research, activism, and the arts. Her experience as the daughter of political exiles in France, Turkey, USA and Holland profoundly informed her interest in issues of justice, equality and diversity, and in how these issues can and should be expressed in academia

Falabella will speak to us about several projects she is or has been involved with and that all relate to the what she terms ‘impossible bodies’. These are bodies that fall outside or contradict the norms and standards set by social institutions, especially that of an official language and writing. Social institutions determine the rules for participation in public life and which bodies are authorized to enter the national public sphere and its imaginary. As a result of this logic other bodies become impossible bodies and subjected to legitimized and institutionalized violence and abjection. These are complex performative processes that are common to post-colonial and neo-liberal nations in the “Global South”, of which Chile can be considered paradigmatic.

What are the bodies and languages that emerge in resistance? What are their performances? How do they relate to the norm and its violence?  What strategies of resistance, transgression and survival are put in operation? And finally, what knowledges for emancipation are produced, encoded and passed on to next generations?

Soledad Falabella holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic Literature and Languages from the University of California, Berkeley. Books: ¿Qué será de Chile en el Cielo?- Poema de Chile de Gabriela Mistral (LOM Santiago, Chile, 2003); Hilando en la Memoria: Curriao, Huinao, Millapan, Manquepillan, Panchillo, Pinda, Rupailaf, the first anthology of Mapuche women poets (Cuarto Propio, Santiago, Chile, 2006) and Hilando en la Memoria, Epu Rupa (Cuarto Propio, Santiago, 2009); Cantando la infancia, Chile y la tierra Americana Poetic Anthology of Gabriela Mistral for boys and girls from 4-6 years old (Santiago, Ministry de Education, 2008). She is the director of ESE:O, a non-profit organization which promotes collaborative writing projects, and the teaching and practice of writing to empower learning communities with concrete skills for local and global participation in knowledge production and circulation (http://www.eseo.cl). She also teaches feminist critical theory, performance and poetry at the Magíster en Género y Cultura, Universidad de Chile.

Doing Gender lectures are organised by the Graduate Gender Programme - GGeP - at Utrecht University. The lecture series wants to give space to the new generations of gender theorists and practitioners and to perspectives that innovate the field and do gender in new ways. Key is the notion of doing gender: what is the state of the art definition of gender? How do contemporary scholars utilise this definition?

Why Theatre? is a series of guest lectures and meetings with theatre and dance researchers and practitioners throughout the year.

Entrance is free, but we appreciate your reservation in advance; please send an e-mail to whytheatre@theatrestudies.nl