Devilish deals: art, research, and activism with/in the institution

ABSTRACT

The annual ethnographic performance SJS-Who? is an example of how theatre may survive or even thrive in an educational/institutional environment that seems increasingly indifferent to the arts and humanities. In addition to being a meaningful educational experience for many students, SJS-Who? has successfully increased the profile of performance work within the department, college, and university. It also offers an opportunity to publicly critique university policy and campus climate. However, there are risks to aligning theatre with social science, and about the work’s efficacy as an activist tool within a larger institution.

KEYWORDS:

• Performance
• ethnography
• interdisciplinarity
• activism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Oona Hatton is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at San José State University. She works on and writes about performance and incarceration and representations of race in historical and contemporary performance. She has published in Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, Theatre Research International, and Youth Theatre Journal.

Notes

1 The term ‘performance work’ vs. ‘performance’ makes explicit reference to the labour inherent in this activity. This linguistic intervention counters a legacy of terminology that obscures or underestimates the intellectual, physical, and emotional demands theatre-making requires, such as the unfortunate phrase ‘play practice.’

2 For more background on our interview and performance methods, which synthesize approaches both in and outside of the academy, see (Smith 2012) and (Stucky 2002).

3 Our class spends a considerable amount of time discussing the sticky issue of what Nancy Alcoff has called ‘the problem of speaking for others’ (1991). For performance scholars writing about this challenge, see Conquergood (2013), Jones (2002), and Madison (2005).

4 Hatton (2014). Speakers are designated by the first initial of the performer.

5 Hatton (2016).

6 Hatton (2014).

7 Hatton (2017).