Asian American Theatre Group
American Society for Theatre Research
November 5-9, 2008 Conference
Deadline Extended

Co-conveners:
Esther Kim Lee, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
(kim32@uiuc.edu)
Ron West, Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, NE
(rwest33449@aol.com)

Asian American theatre, as an investigatory category, offers a
particularly appropriate opportunity to explore the implications of
migration across and within geopolitical borders and cultural
boundaries. Though “migration” generally implies a willing movement
of people among geographic areas, it also provides a convenient
euphemism for the manipulative consequences of globalization.
Thus, “migrant” populations may be compelled or encouraged to move
among geographic regions but remain excluded from full membership
in “settled” social and political territories such as the Americas.
The borders are economically fluid, but culturally unyielding. In
particular, Asian populations historically have been excluded by
convention and statute from full membership in the “American”
imagination, even while they have been exploited as economic
necessities and defined as the Other. Asian American theatre
likewise struggles with the relegation to contingency status,
signaled by its persistent depiction as a component of the mid-
twentieth century’s countercultural movement, a sidebar to the main
event. Still, Asian American theatre broadly defined remains one of
the most promising sites for challenging the false dichotomy
of “Asian” and “American” that continues to define the constructed
representation of the Asian diaspora in the Americas. Our group
invites participants to address the ways in which the migration, map,
and memory of Asian American theatre unsettles “American” theatre by
re-settling the territory between the illusory poles of Asia and the
Americas. As the first ASTR session to focus on Asian American
theatre, the meeting will allow participants to explore the potential
of Asian American theatre as a web of links rather than a series of
discrete “ethnic” discourses and thereby to examine a range of
interstitial relationships that avoid isolating Asian American, yet
retain a productive distinction. In part because of our hope to draw
upon a broad community of perspectives, we especially encourage
submissions that extend Asian American beyond the American
subdivision of the United States.

Session format:

The process and implementation of the session will resemble the ASTR
seminar’s 2-hour structure. Participants must commit to submitting
preliminary drafts of their papers by August 1st and actively
participate in an online pre-conference discussion by means of a
fully secure website. The final conference drafts (8-10 pages) are
due by October 15th.

By the extended deadline of June 15, 2008, please submit an abstract
(max 500 words) and brief biography (150 words) via email to:

Esther Kim Lee, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
(kim32@uiuc.edu)

AND

Ron West, Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, NE
(rwest33449@aol.com)