TaPRA PGR Symposium 2026
Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama | University of Manchester | 18 June | 10 am onwards
Nothing to Be Done (?)
A small group of theatre PGRs sit around and stage a modest intervention anyway.
The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh. Let us not then speak ill of our generation, it is not any unhappier than its predecessors. Let us not speak well of it either. Let us not speak of it at all.
—Beckett, S. Waiting for Godot, Act III
Worlds break and we must resist the urge to put it back together, to pull the shards into passable shapes, to form facsimiles of unbroken life.
—Halberstam, J. (2024) ‘Unworlding’. Journal of Architectural Education. p.276
In a moment such as this, marked by escalating conflicts across continents, unprecedented levels of forced displacement, and ecological systems undergoing irreversible breakdown, that is likely to be remembered for ages as one of profound moral crises, we must ask: what, if anything, can theatre and performance research do for the world, for us.
What does it mean to continue the work of theatre and performance today, to analyse performances, to engage concepts, to argue over gaps and methods, to theorise about ethics, inclusion and representation, when elsewhere the world is structured by forces that admit no such subtlety? Where do our finely tuned critical vocabularies sit alongside the spectacle of war? What becomes of our nuanced discussions on gesture, presence, embodiment, relationality, and affect, when, in times such as these, lives (and deaths) are measured and tallied, counted out, one by one, as numbers? In our scholarship, is this continued attention to finer details an honest form of care, a refusal on our part to give up on making sense of the world? Or is it a way, perhaps, of (un?)intentionally deferring more direct forms of engagement?
Is there truly nothing to be done? Are we all, in some sense, suspended in a kind of critical impasse, circling the same questions, returning to the same uncertainties, rehearsing for revolutions that like Godot may never arrive? Or might there still be forms of resistance available to us, a way of “taking (the proverbial) arms against a sea of troubles” within the limited capacities of postgraduate researchers?
Without denying the fear and anxieties surrounding the possible futility of such academic labour in times such as these, we invite you to the 2026 TaPRA Postgraduate Symposium. Let us think of this, perhaps, as a modest intervention, a space to think together, to sit with these questions, and to consider what, if anything, might still be possible within the often precarious conditions of theatre research, and more specifically, postgraduate theatre research.
We welcome contributions that engage with, but are not limited to:
- What it might mean, in this context, to be (or not to be?) a theatre researcher or practitioner today.
- If, as we are often reminded, all the world remains a stage, then what roles are we inhabiting, and for whom? Are we performers, observers, critics, witnesses, or something else entirely?
- What of the frameworks, theories, methodologies, and critical languages that we use? Do they still hold, or do they begin to feel insufficient, even fragile, in the face of contemporary crisis?
- Is there still space for slowness, hesitation, doubt or mess, ideas that performance studies have long valued, when everything around us demands urgency and action?
- Do small acts, minor gestures, and everyday forms of care and resistance still matter, even if they feel provisional or limited?
- Do we need new ways of paying attention, witnessing, gathering, or staying with difficult questions? Should we begin to think beyond resolution, not because it is limiting, but because it may no longer be possible?
We invite you to join us, to think with us, and, if need be, to challenge us, tell us we are wrong to think that nothing can be done, and show us otherwise.
Symposium format
To facilitate conversation between researchers, we are organising this year’s symposium around discursive panels. In each panel, 4 researchers will each have 5 minutes to introduce their research, followed by 40 minutes of discussion.
Because of this discursive format, we will only be accepting proposals for in-person contributions. Attendees will be able to join online as part of a hybrid audience, and contribute to discussions.
To this end, we welcome short performances, provocations, introductions of practice research and other creative formats – as long as they fit within 5 minutes. We especially encourage submissions from scholars working across decolonial, queer, disabled, and feminist perspectives.
Practical information
Please send a 200–250-word abstract to pgtapra@proton.me with an additional short biography of no more than 50 words. Please let us know in your covering email if there are access provisions that would better enable you to participate. (Please note that you do not have to be a member of TaPRA to apply/attend.)
Deadline for abstracts: 1 May 2026
Intimation of acceptances: 15 May 2026
Event organisers: Alisha Ibkar (University of Manchester), Eleanor Field (Northumbria University and Nottingham Trent University), Nic Farr (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama)
