DANCING ACROSS THE LIFE SPAN, book project
edited by Doug Risner, Pam Musil & Karen Schupp
CALL FOR PAPERS
We are seeking paper proposals for a collection of age-related articles in dance ranging from 4000 to 7000 words. Contributions may include original empirical research, contextualized reflections of lived experience, theoretical framing of existing aging and ageism issues, and personal narrative inquiries as they impact or reside within the dance discipline. As the first volume of its kind to address age related issues in dance, this collection presents a range of new perspectives across professional, applied, educational, and popular culture realms.
The aim of the collection is to interrogate the workings of age and ageing across the lives of dancers, and those who make dance their livelihoods. The book offers new perspectives on the political, social, media, and (multi)cultural systems in which dance and age function, especially those systems which promote age stereotypes and assumptions.
Prospective contributors are encouraged to consider the questions below from a variety of research paradigms and perspectives. We welcome papers that employ diverse methodological approaches. Possible topics and research questions include, but are not limited to:
- How does age influence dancers’ perceptions of their professional and personal lives?
- What does brain, cognition and neuroscience research infer about dancing and age?
- What ageist assumptions circulate within the broad categories of participatory dance, dance performance, and dance teaching?
- How might dominant assumptions about age be supported or challenged by existing dance structures? (e.g., within work, recreational, educational and performance spaces, and/or within the media and popular culture)
- What social and cultural constructions situate dancers in conflict with theirs and others’ biological age? How do dominant notions about bodies of a certain age govern and police human beings in motion?
- From what dominant perspectives or vantage points is one’s body age typically framed? How do these vantage points frame bodily ability in dance? One’s body socially and culturally? Racially and ethnically? Sexually and by gender?
- How do perceptions and assumptions about age differ in dance settings across various dance forms, cultures and nationalities?
- How is age and ageing perceived across dance training locales and spaces including commercial dance studios, creative dance for children classrooms, pre-professional training schools, higher education dance? in what ways do age differences impact teaching, learning, and power in dance?
A volume of research-informed studies, essays, and commentary that critically explores the production, representation, function, and outcomes of age-related issues in dance is long overdue. It is anticipated that the book will become a primary text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, teachers and faculty, researchers, scholars, and others whose interests intersect dance, age, human development, and arts across the life span
Contributors will address questions about dance and age through original (unpublished) inquiry-based chapters rooted in analyses from a range of frameworks and lenses. Because of the nature of this volume and the time necessary for contributors to design and complete their research, a publishing contract has not yet been confirmed. Please see the following timeline of submission deadlines:
Proposal Abstract & Materials: DUE JUNE 15, 2018 [Early submissions appreciated]
Please submit (1) a 500-word proposal abstract (including research methodology as appropriate), (2) working bibliography and (3) CV (with publication record) as email attachments to the editors (email addresses below) by June 15th, 2018. Proposal abstracts will be reviewed within three weeks of submission. Full papers will be due March 31, 2019.
Please submit Proposal Abstracts & Materials to all three editors at their email addresses listed below:
Doug Risner, PhD, MFA, is Distinguished Faculty Fellow and Professor of Dance in the Department of Theatre & Dance at Wayne State University, where he has served as Chair and Senior Assistant Chair of the department. He is the author of four books: Stigma and Perseverance in the Lives of Boys Who Dance (Mellen, 2009), Hybrid Lives of Teaching Artists in Dance and Theatre Arts: A Critical Reader (Cambria, 2014) with Mary Anderson, Gender, Sexuality & Identity: Critical Issues in Dance Education (Routledge, 2015). Risner is Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the Journal of Dance Education, and Associate Editor (US) of the international journal,Research in Dance Education. drisner@wayne.edu
Karen Schupp
MFA is Assistant Director of Dance in the School of Film, Dance and Theatre in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University and the author of Studying Dance: A Guide to Campus and Beyond. Her scholarly research addresses innovative pedagogical practices and curricula in postsecondary dance education and dance competition culture. Her artistic practice centers on interdisciplinary self-portraiture. Current projects include a webseries, In It to Win!, that explores dance competition culture at youtube.com/c/MissKarenWins, and co-editing with Dr. Doug Risner the forthcoming volume Case Studies in Dance Education: Ethical Dimensions of Humanizing Dance Pedagogy. She is also the associate editor of Journal of Dance Education.
Karen.schupp@asu.edu
Pam Musil, MA, is Professor of Dance and Associate Chair in the Department of Dance at Brigham Young University. Her scholarship spans 7-12 and post-secondary settings and addresses dance literacy, education, gender, and age. Her work is found in the Journal of Dance Education, Research in Dance Education, Arts Education Policy Review and recent book chapters for Arts Education and Literacies (2015), and Dance and Gender (2017). Current projects include contributions to Case Studies in Dance Education: Ethical Dimensions of Humanizing Dance Pedagogy, edited by Dr. Doug Risner and Karen Schupp. She served as book review editor for the Journal of Dance Education from 2005 – 2010, and is an Editorial Board member for the Journal of Dance Education and Arts Education Policy Review. pam_musil@byu.edu
Doug Risner, PhD
Professor & Director of Graduate Studies
Dept of Theatre & Dance
Wayne State University
Editor Emeritus, Journal of Dance Education
Associate Editor,