Calling for a Conjuration

Abstract

This essay explores the shifting terrain of performance studies through one professor's personal journey in the discipline.

Keywords:

• Performance
• Education
• Communication
• Blackness
• Ethnography

Notes

[1] While I use the term Afro-Pessimism here to reference theories that suggest that black captivity is a requirement of civil society in the United States, I am mindful that the term carries a different set of meanings in economic, development, and funding circles. In such arenas, Afro-Pessimism identifies the belief that the African continent faces a grim future given the number of ecological, economic, political, and social issues it must confront. In an important way, the usages are intertwined and mutually influencing.