> 
> 
> Dear Colleagues
> 
> Below is a recent call for a special issue for the journal I co-edit.  We are keen to widen the range of voices in this particular issue and I wondered if you had any suggestions for potential contributors. Feel free to forward this on to potentially interested parties or to send me details directly for me to do so.
> 
> Very best wishes to you all
> 
> Jonathan
> 
> Professor Jonathan Pitches
> Chair in Theatre and Performance
> Director of Research
> School of Performance and Cultural Industries
> University of Leeds
> Leeds
> LS2 9JT
> UK
> 
> Telephone: +44 (0) 113 343 8718
> Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> www.leeds.ac.uk/pci/staff/staff_jpitches.html
> 
> Co-editor of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training Journal http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/rtdp
> 
> 
> 
> ‘Training, Politics and Ideology’: a special issue of Theatre Dance and Performance Training (TDPT) Issue 5.2, Summer 2014
> http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/rtdp<https://outlook.leeds.ac.uk/owa/redir.aspx?C=62917645b27645d0b03355316ff75880&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.tandf.co.uk%2fjournals%2frtdp>
> Call for contributions, ideas, and dialogue with the guest editor Maria Kapsali ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>)
> 
> In recent years there has been a proliferation of studies (Pitches 2006, Murray 2007, Evans 2009, Camilleri 2009, Margolis & Renaud 2010, Matthews 2011) which focus either on the historical and ideological components and framings of different training regimes, or on the concepts that define the notion and activity of training as a distinct enterprise. In fact, it has been argued that ‘training in itself is not the end; rather, it is the means to produce and propagate an aesthetic and an ideology’ (Chandradasan, 2010: 46). Moreover, the arts and higher education sector have become embroiled in fiercely contested debates on their purpose and social impact as at the same time increasingly driven by the forces of neo-liberalism and instrumentalism.
> In line with current debates in both the scholarly field as well as the public arena, the 2014 special issue of TDPT is dedicated to an examination of the politics and ideologies that underpin, determine and influence all forms of theatre, dance and performance training, wherever or whenever. We expressly welcome contributions from and around non western experiences and practices.
> We offer initial working definitions of ideology and politics like this:  (1) ‘ideology’ as ‘the set of ideas which arise from a given set of material interests, or more broadly, from a definite class or group’ (Williams, 1983: 156) and, of course, as imperatives of gender, ethnicity and nationalism; and (2) ‘Politics’ as a contestation through discourse over the policies, values and behaviours that affect social and economic relations. This delineation of the territory that is politics will, of course, include the past and current policies, interventions, and occurrences that affect the social and economic context in which training takes place across the world.
> 
> Themes and questions (far from exhaustive)
> 1/ Historical Contexts
> 
> Critical accounts of specific training regimes from the past, focusing on their relationships with the then current social, cultural and economic contexts.
> 
> 
> ·         In what ways have political developments as well as economic and social structures, such as free-market capitalism, consumerism, globalization, influenced 20th and 21st century training and the delivery and transmission of particular training regimes?
> 
> 
> 2/ Industry and Economic Sustainability
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> Here we would welcome critical explorations of (1) the relationships between one or more training regimes and the apparent ‘needs’ of the most relevant ‘industry’ or profession; and (2) the needs of trainees to equip themselves with the means for future employment.
> 
> 
> ·         Should a training programme prioritize the trainee’s future economic and professional survival or aim to question existing models and cultivate an alternative ethos?
> 
> ·         What alternative economic and administrative models can training programmes adopt in order to gain (a degree of) financial, institutional, and consequently artistic independence?
> 
> 
> 3/ Self-development and Subjectivity
> In addition to skills acquisition, engagement with a form of training is also regarded as a means of self-development and improvement. Critical accounts of specific training regimes that can be understood, at least in part, as projects for the development of the self.
> 
> 
> ·         What is the relationship between training as a distinct activity (and specific training regimes) and the wider cultural imperative to train?
> 
> ·         What are the tensions between training regimes’ own declared intentions andthe dominant (capitalist, western, imperialist) narratives of personal identity?
> 
> 4/ Agency and Performance
> An examination of performance training as a vehicle for political resistance or transgression which in turn engages with debates about the political efficacy of theatre/performance. Here, perhaps, an invitation to test out Foucaultian notions of discipline and discourse against theatre, dance and performance training.
> 
> 
> ·         Can different forms of training cultivate agency or resistance to dominant structures and how do these forms impact on theatre and performance?
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> ·         Are there training paradigms that eschew the ‘discipline-agency’ model and which propose different relationships to authority?
> 
> 
> 5/ Class, gender, ethnicity and nationalism
> An invitation to offer critical reflection and analysis on the myriad ways in which training regimes are shaped and inflected directly or unconsciously by the dominant divisive forces of our time: class, ethnicity, gender and national identity.
> 
> 
> *   How do training regimes speak of, reflect, cloak and propagate the politics and ideologies of class, gender and ethnicity?
> 
> Proposing a contribution to this special issue of TDPT
> 
> The editors are interested in submissions from theatre trainers; theatre, dance and performance academics and researchers; social science scholars; and practitioners from relevant fields (actors, dancers, directors, choreographers, producers, dramaturgs, scenographers, puppeteers, community theatre artists, live art performers). Submissions might take the form of articles; interviews; manifestoes; documented discussions between policy makers, administrators and performance trainers; reviews (including discussions of reports and implemented policies); case studies; documentation of relevant events/practices/projects; performative writing or photographic essays. Cross- or inter-disciplinary approaches will be welcomed.
> 
> To signal your interest and intent to write an article or a source document in this special issue please email an abstract (max 250 words) to Maria Kapsali at the above address. Our second deadline for these is 2nd April 2013
> 
> Training Grounds in TDPT habitually offers different (and always shorter) registers and forms of writing in which to articulate and play with the theme(s) in question. We welcome ideas for what a ‘Training, Politics and Ideology’ Training Grounds might look like and proposals, for example, for ‘postcards’, essais, reviews, photo essays and ‘answer the question’ provocations.
> 
> For a contribution towards Training Grounds please send your ideas and proposals to Kieran Hurley at: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> or Teresa Brayshaw at [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> 
> Approximate timelines
> 
> April 2nd 2013
> 250 word proposals identifying key topics to the guest editor, Maria Kapsali, for Articles and Sources sections.
> 
> Early May 2013
> Response from editor and, if successful, invitation to submit full essay.
> 
> Early September 2013
> Deadline for full submissions: Full papers would normally be no less than 5000 and no more than 6500 words.
> 
> September – December 2013
> Peer review
> 
> January-March 2014
> Final Revisions
> 
> Summer 2014
> Publication in TDPT 5.2
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>