Performance Studies Division

The Performance Studies Division of NCA promotes study, criticism, research, teaching, public awareness, and application of the artistic, humanistic, and cultural principles of performance. Scholars and artists associated with the Division pursue performance as an object of inquiry (looking at varieties of performance in everyday life as well as on stage), a heuristic metaphor for analysis (looking at modes of communication that “common sense” might not view as performative but that may nonetheless yield knowledge if viewed as such), a method of research (using performance to investigate social phenomena), and a medium of artistry (creating performance in traditions ranging from reader’s theatre to performance art for public presentation). The Division’s activity at the annual NCA convention typically includes traditional paper sessions and panels, roundtables devoted to theoretical, critical, aesthetic, and pedagogical issues concerning performance, and both debut and contributed paper presentations. In addition to these forms of research presentation, the Division’s offerings include presentations of members’ performance work that may involve full-length solo performances, productions originally staged at local campuses, and performance hours comprised of shorter performances, from members around the nation, on a given theme.