Call for Papers 
HECKLER
Trade, 1 Thoresby Street, Nottingham, United Kingdom, NG1 1AJ. 

Saturday 13 July 2013
12.30pm - 18.30pm

http://www.tradegallery.org/#heckler

Call for paper-based and performative presentations and provocations to be included in the symposium entitled, HECKLER: Tactics to heckle, hiss, howl and holler organised by Loughborough University School of the Artsʼ Lee Campbell and Mel Jordan in association with Trade, Nottingham. 

Lets upend the conformist definition of the heckle as anti-social and instead think of the heckler as heroic, a kind of public speech super hero, with the ability to suspend rhetoric, preserving the right to speak out of turn. The violence, awkwardness and embarrassment of the heckle are signs of its political courage, fearlessness and agency. The heckler's interruption opens up a space for public discourse. Deprived of the heckler we would have one less method of turning passerbyʼs into assembled publics (Jordan, 2013). 

The symposium will explore the potential of the heckler as a speaker that can offer a revised understanding of social exchanges within contemporary debates on participation, linguistics, ethics and communication. Artists Campbell and Jordan argue that the heckler, a person who  disrupts performances, speeches and public addresses should be considered as a metaphorical figurehead of impoliteness. 

At any rate the heckler should appear on the menu of communicative speech acts and as a tactic for understanding the performers relationship to an audience. Furthermore the notion of the heckler enables a review of the troublesome divisions presented in the dichotomies inherent in the coupling of speaker and listener, performer and audience, official speaker and unauthorised respondent. There is no doubt that the philosophies of impoliteness as a behavioural activity have been attacked by some within sociolinguistic circles as ʻdeviantʼ and ʻto be avoidedʼ (Leech 1983:105), Campbell and Jordanʼs admiration for the heckler as an embodiment of impoliteness may just be the tip of the iceberg, but an iceberg that surrounds a contemporary surge of interest in the whole territory of impolite behaviour as a means of looking at the construction of social relations. 

Keynote speakers:

Daniel Z. Kadar, Professor of English Language and Linguistics, Director, Centre for Intercultural Politeness Research, University of Huddersfield. Provisional paper title: ʻThe heckler's 'impoliteness': A mimetic-relational perspectiveʼ
• Peter Bond (Senior Lecturer, Performance theory and practice, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design). Provisional paper title: ʻOff-sideʼ.
• Dr. Ian Bruff (Political Scientist, Lecturer in International Relations at Loughborough Universityʼs Department for Politics, History and International Relations). 

Proposals for presentations are welcome which interrogate what constitutes the heckler and how his/her actions may have significance within multiple contemporary discourses / study disciplines. 

HECKLER will also be taking place at Artsadmin, London in September 2013. 
Submission guidelines 

Please send: 

• A 300–350 word proposal/abstract including keywords outlining your presentation and state institute affiliation (if any).
• A short biography including any websites as relevant 
• Please do not send any further attachments with your submission. 
• Please indicate any particular technical support in your submission. 

Timetable: 
7 June 2013 – 5pm GMT UK time, deadline (all submissions to be sent via email to Lee Campbell [log in to unmask] and Mel Jordan [log in to unmask] with the word HECKLER in the subject heading.
15 June 2013 – Notification of successful applicants.
13 July 2013 – Symposium held at Trade, Thoresby Street, Nottingham, United Kingdom.

 
Jordan, M. Heckle, Hiss, Howl and Holler in Art & the Public Sphere Volume 1 Number 2 APS 1 (2) (Intellect Limited, 2013) 117–119. 

Leech, G., 1983. Principles of Pragmatics, Longman.