TaPRA 2024 Bodies and Performance working group
Deadline: Wednesday 10 April 2024
Dynamics of desire: A politicised methodology towards pleasure-fuelled research
In the woozy afterglow of our investigations last year into the ways in which Critical Hunk and Babe Studies might be mobilised to critique oppressive structures and aesthetic regimes of whiteness, ableism and cisgenderism, we have lingered in the possibilities of centring the pleasures and desires of the researcher of performance. Last year’s presentations were pervaded by a spectrum of desires – from tentative infatuation, to frenzied horniness, to impassioned longing – for the subject of the research. This was particularly embodied by Tom Hastings’ enticing critical reflections on a dance history research crush. We seek to follow such reflections by building on adrienne maree brown’s emphasis in Pleasure Activism that ‘We are in a time of fertile ground for learning how we align our pleasures with our values, decolonizing our bodies and longings, and getting into a practice of saying an orgasmic yes together, deriving our collective power from our felt sense of pleasure’ (2019: 12; emphasis in original). We propose an awareness of the (dynamics of the) researcher’s crushing, desiring and pleasure-fuelled bodymind as a politicised methodology towards undertaking research in performance.
The crush, desire or pleasure at the heart of this methodology might be focused on: the subject of the research, the process of undertaking that research, being caught within the heat of inspiration, or what bell hooks describes in Yearning: race, gender and cultural politics as the ‘shared passions and longing’ experienced by those ‘committed to remaining critically aware’ (2015 [1990]: xii). That criticality is very much in evidence within this methodology as the dynamics of desire may be experienced in an increasingly complex and reflexive way as the initial rosy glow of research infatuation might be disrupted by disillusionment or deeper understanding. We suggest that this methodology implicates our bodies and beings differently in relation to our research, but also opens up, complicates and charges positionality–moving beyond an approach to positionality rooted in oppressive categories, tick boxes or tropes that do not reflect how we experience the world as researchers. brown highlights that ‘we must prioritize the pleasure of those most impacted by oppression’ (2019: 13) and challenge those who believe a surfeit of pleasure ‘belongs to them, that it is their inheritance…On a broad level, white people and men have been the primary recipients of this delusion, the belief that they deserve to have excess, while the majority of others don’t have enough’ (2019: 15). Similarly, we invite you to reflexively consider your own relationship to pleasure as a researcher, but also how to facilitate other researchers to wholeheartedly embrace their pleasure. We encourage a multivarious perception of research processes involving pleasure and desire that encompasses the joys to be found in unabashed frivolity or by basking in the richly layered fleshy forms of decadence explored by Adam Alston’s work on Staging Decadence (2020-), but also the deep pleasure of a dedicated commitment to earnestness and horizon thinking, or to rigorously following the rules. Evoking Sara Ahmed’s emphasis on mapping unofficial paths or ‘desire lines’ (2006), we welcome the seemingly light and the weighty, the serious or the apparently trivial, the borders and the boundless.
Possible areas for consideration or exploration around the dynamics of desire shaping the processes of research might include, but are not limited to:
- Research approaches rooted in embodied states of desire / bodies of desire;
- Pleasure-fuelled research methodologies as activism;
- Finding pleasure in expertly playing by the rules or (equally expertly) breaking them when conducting research;
- Textures of pleasure within research approaches;
- Exploring, developing or supporting other people’s desire driven research methodologies;
- Positionality of the researcher – desiring the research, crushing on the subject of the research, starting a relationship or breaking-up with the subject of the research, feeling disillusioned by the research…, being in a complex relationship with the research (‘it’s complicated’);
- Feeling the weight of our research – disrupting or playing with perceptions of frivolity as light, earnestness as heavy;
- Gravitas – falling for/ swooning for that unapologetic investment in the serious;
- Sincerity/ Serious/unserious – tracing the boundaries – being earnest about frivolity;
- Joyful experiences when conducting research – joy, perhaps as pleasure’s wholesome cousin;
- Journeying towards love/loving well as an important part of one’s relationship with the research (bell hooks, 1995: 138);
- Hidden desires and guilty pleasures framing the research;
- Yearning and longing, horizon thinking and dreaming;
- Romance – wooing or seducing your reader / spectator;
- Cruising your reader/ spectator à la Roland Barthes (1975: 4);
- Immersing, bathing, basking in pleasure/desire/crushing whilst researching;
- Situating your research methodology in the resistant mode of desire framed by micha cárdenas in Trans Desire as central to a radical politics (2010);
- Nostalgic research and backwards searching toward a reimagined past;
- The research processes inciting desire-fuelled transformations of the researcher or the research;
- Ownership, territorialisation and exploitative expectations between the research and researcher;
- Utopic research methodologies – finding pleasure beyond states of oppression;
We invite diverse modes of sharing research, including, but not limited to, provocations, practice demonstrations, performative presentations, formal papers. You are welcome to offer a full-length (approximately 15-20 minutes) of one of these forms, or a 5-10 minute ‘bit of stuff’ or ‘micropresentation’ that offers an opportunity to test out seedling ideas. Please indicate your preference of format clearly in your proposal, with a specific breakdown of any technical requirements. We will endeavour to accommodate all requests, but please be aware that we are working within finite resources and we may need to suggest alternative formats. Alongside traditional written abstracts, we welcome proposals in alternative forms to support your access, preference and pleasure: e.g. voice notes or videos up to 1.5 minutes in length.
Come and revel with us in the political potential of crushing, yearning, desire-soaked researcher bodies. We welcome responses from all disciplinary perspectives and pleasures.
Conference structure
Northumbria University will host the TaPRA 2024 annual conference in central Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK) as a hybrid event from 4 to 6 September 2024. We welcome online and in-person delegates.
Process for submitting a proposal
Please email a submission with the following elements by midnight on 10 April 2024 to the Working Group convenors at bodiesandperf@tapra.org:
- 300-word max abstract
- 100-word max biography
- Confirmation on whether you plan to attend online or in person
- Any specific requirements relating to space or AV technology
Please note: You may only submit a proposal to one working group (or to the TaPRA Gallery) for this conference, proposals submitted after the deadline will not be considered.
Timescale
TaPRA will inform you whether or not your proposal has been accepted in mid-May 2024. Registration will also be open from mid-May 2024, which will ask for accessibility and dietary requirements. A draft schedule will be ready by the end of June 2023. Registration will close on 1 August 2024. Accommodation options in central Newcastle with special rates will be available to all delegates.
Conference costs
There are two main delegate types (standard and concession, definition below) and all fees include one-year TaPRA membership of £35 (standard) or £17 (concession). Early bird rates only apply to in-person full conference fees.
In-person fees: (early bird/late bird)
- Full conference fee: £250/£300 (standard) and £180/£230 (concession)
- Day rate: £130 (standard) and £100 (concession)
- WG Convenors and Exec: £198 (standard) and £17 (concession)
- Life members: £163
Online fees:
- Full conference fee: £110 (standard) and £90 (concession)
- WG Convenors and Exec: £108 (standard) and £17 (concession)
- Life members: £73
A day rate is not available for online delegates.
Concession definition
Concession rates apply to all students, postgraduate researchers (MA or PhD), unwaged, unaffiliated, and retired researchers, and staff on contracts of either less than 0.6FTE or else fixed for less than 12 months. These categories apply to the delegate’s circumstances on the first day of the conference.
Bursaries
Each Working Group manages a bursary to cover the fee and some expenses, offered on a competitive basis. Preference will be given to those without access to any institutional funds. This process is open to accepted presenters only and will be managed by the Working Group convenors post-confirmation of acceptance.
Please note: only one proposal may be submitted for a TaPRA event. It is not permitted to submit multiple proposals or submit the same proposal to several Calls for Participation. All presenters must be TaPRA members, i.e. registered for the event; this includes presentations given by Skype or other media broadcast even where the presenter may not physically attend the event venue.
