Between antipodality and relational performance

performance studies in Australia

Edward Scheer

Peter Eckersall

pp. 109-121

in: Jon McKenzie, Heike Roms, CJW-L Wee (eds), Contesting performance, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010

Abstract

On Friday 30 August, 2002, a Performance Studies (PS) Symposium held at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney addressed a variety of questions about the "current disciplinary status of and the scope of research in Performance Studies in Australia" and whether there is such a thing as "Australian Performance Studies' and, if so, how it differs from Performance Studies in other geographical locations, and especially from the United States." These questions was framed by the principal organizer of the event, Dr Moe Meyer, and the discussion chaired by Dr Sharon Mazer, both Americans working in Australia and New Zealand respectively. The responses were as varied as one might expect from scholars whose disciplinary backgrounds and institutional affiliations differed considerably and whose research took them across cultural studies, popular culture studies, theatre studies, and the visual arts, just to list a few of the key areas which were identified.¹