Le Pire ?, Chrystèle Khodr

Regards

Chrystèle Khodr, actrice, autrice et metteuse en scène, témoigne de sa pratique du théâtre aujourd’hui au Liban, des moyens qu’elle met en place pour pérenniser son travail, et des effets de la production sur la forme et le fond de ses spectacles.

Faire D’Avignon « Une Sorte De Grenade, De Ville Dans Laquelle Toute La Méditerranée S’Est Synthétisée ». Retour Sur La Programmation Arabe Du Festival D’Avignon 2022, Pauline Donizeau

Regards

Arab artists had an important place in the 2022 edition of the Festival d’Avignon in France. This edition was the last one directed by Olivier Py, whose mandate was marked by the regular programming of artists from the Maghreb, the Middle East, and the Near East. This article analyzes the different performances directed by Arab artists on the stages of Avignon in 2022, with a particular focus on issues of representation (especially female figures on stage) and production.

Résumé

L’édition 2022 du Festival d’Avignon a donné une place importante aux artistes arabes. Cette édition fut la dernière dirigée par Olivier …

Repenser Le Théâtre D’Objets : Témoignages, Réflexions Et Retours D’Atelier Au Théâtre Tournesol De Beyrouth, Yassaman Khajehi

Regards

Les manifestations de 2019, dites la Révolution ou thawra, la pandémie liée au Covid, l’explosion du port de Beyrouth, la gravité de la crise économique, les élections législatives de mai 2022, les questions d’immigration et d’émigration trouvent leur place sur la scène contemporaine libanaise.
Cette présence très évidente de ces éléments confirme une fois encore la réciprocité entre théâtre et société : une synergie devenue de moins en moins perceptible sur la scène occidentale. La situation théâtrale et sociétale libanaise ouvre alors aux études théâtrales de nouvelles pistes de réflexion sur l’interaction entre politique, société et création scénique.
Cette …

Sana Sana: Unlearning Generational Expectation Through Performance, Jalen R. Ash

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

My work is an exploration of identity as a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Color) body traversing through the generational histories of my family and the struggle of cultural loss to our assimilation of Whiteness. Through the multi-faceted medium of performance, my work uses physical and mental spaces of self and technology to understand how the body functions as a screen. Our bodies house projections of generational expectations that have trickled down from the past into the present. These projections shape our own unique identities along with the personal experiences we gather as we move through the various spaces of …

Laying Out A Space: Spectral Geographies, Fictions Of The Soul, Erin D. Yerby

Theses and Dissertations

Laying out a Space: Spectral Geographies, Fictions of the Soul, arises out of my artistic practice, and thoughts behind my current project and MFA exhibition, Spectral Geographies.

Linking the problem of the world ‘out there’ or external space, to inner experience through painting as both medium and practice, my work expresses what I call inner geographies, spaces where intimate immensities, folding inside and outside, find expression. I think of my paintings as beginning with this gesture of laying out a between-space where the intimacies of waking dreams and visions are opened by, and grow into, actual places, …

The Old One And La Mer, Karter Tod Bernhardt

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

No abstract provided.

Editor’S Note, Deepak Shimkhada

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

This special issue of Monsoon is dedicated to the studies honoring the goddess traditions in South Asia. The onset of the Monsoon Season in South Asia typically commences in June and continues until late August and early September. The publication of this issue, therefore, has been strategically timed to coincide with that season, which is a vital source of sustenance for millions of individuals in this part of the world. This anthology consisting of five papers—written by scholars with expertise in the field of goddess and women studies—speak unequivocally about the goddesses or women for their strength, beauty, wisdom, and …

Constructing Jain Goddess Padmavātī In Gujarati Literature, Venu Mehta

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Worship of the goddess Padmāvatī emerged more than a thousand years ago. This article explores three songs about her in Gujarati by Paṇḍit Vīrvijayajī (1773-1852). By analyzing the style and form of his work, one learns a great deal about devotional liturgies that commemorate goddess Padmāvatī’s protection of the Jina Pārśvanātha and, in turn, his protection of her.

Women’S Voices From History: Gond Rani Durgawati And Rani Lakshmibhai, Nandini Sengupta, Moupia Basu

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Two strong women are compared and contrasted in this article. Gond Rani Durgawati (1524-1564) led a resistance movement in Jabalpur against the Mughal rule of Akbar. Rani Lakshmibai (1828-1858) organized the people of Jhansi against Sir Hugh Rose, an officer defending the interests of the British East India Company. Both women continue to be remembered for their bravery and their loyalty to the people they ruled.

Mai Bhago And Amrita Devi Bishnoi: Women Of Strength, Sowmya Ayyar

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Mai Bhago (1670-1720), also known as Bhag Kaur, distinguished herself on the battlefield to defend the Sikh faith. Amrita Devi Bishnoi (d. 1730) is said to have sacrificed her life with 362 others to protect the Khejari trees in the Rajasthan desert. Both women continue to inspire social justice and ecological activism.

An Examination Of Gandhian Economic And Political Thought And Its Relevance To The Empowerment Of Women, Purnima Mehta Bhatt

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) sought to alleviate poverty and empower women. His commitment to nonviolence and the economic ideal of “small is beautiful” continue to inspire grassroots movements around the globe. This article discusses the Chipko movement of northern India, the protection of rain forests in Kerala’s Silent Valley, the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), and Medha Patkar’s valiant though ultimately futile attempt to save the Narmada River from a massive government damming project. The ongoing legacy of these movements can be found in AWAG, the Ahmedabad Women’s Action Group and Women’s Shanti Sena (Peace Force).

Indigenous Stitch-Arts Of India: Tradition And Revival In A Global Age, Punam Madhok

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Stitch art allows for the creative expression and economic support of countless women throughout India. This article examines four notable styles: chikankari, flora and fauna stitched in white thread on fine white cotton, rabari, the stitching of mirrors into colorful cloth, phulkari, resplendent flowery motifs sewn into shawls in Punjab, and kantha, Bengali patch work yielding quilts and seating mats. In addition to describing each technique, this article discusses how women have been economically empowered through this art by such organizations as Self-Help Enterprise (SHE) in Kolkata and Adithi, a women’s cooperative, in Bihar.

Identities Of Women In Indian Art And History, Nalini Rao

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The stereotypical image of Indian women portrayed in the art of stone sculpture is often interpreted as images of beauty that are sensuous, religious as well depict social life. There are historical reasons for depicting her as such. This paper inquires into the changing depiction and social forces that influenced feminine imagery. This paper examines the portrayal of beauty through idealization of female body which has evolved over the centuries in India. It also aims to understand their changing status and explores issues of feminine identity, status, and empowerment largely in ancient and medieval India. It also provides a brief …

An Arbitrary Aesthetic: Cultural Reproduction And Hegemonic Canonical Formations In The Western Theatrical Academy, Sim C. Rivers

Theses and Dissertations

Theatre as an artistic practice has often been celebrated as an art of and for the people, being a modality that in theory the common person has access to learn, explore and experience. In recent years I have become preoccupied with the growing rarification and privileging of this art form, particularly in how it is cognized and taught in the academic world. As such, I set out to investigate the mechanisms at work at levels structural, artistic, and personal that determine how theatre is taught and understood within the western academy.

This thesis seeks to examine and unpack the perceived …

The School Of The One: A Mystery On Canvas, Noah Salomon

Regards

In late 20th century Sudan, a new school of visual art emerged that sought to bridge what it saw as a gulf between contemporary Islamic renewal and the arts. Lamenting that the latter had gone in the direction of secular life, while the former had taken on a deeply anti-aesthetic bent, the school looked to Sufism’s aesthetic archive to revitalize Islamic artistic practice for the 21st century. Calling itself “The School of the One” (Madrasat al-Wāhid), its artists sought to harness the power of beauty inherent in Islamic theological and ritual traditions while suturing it to new ends …

Imagining Lebanon With Islamic Art: The 1974 Exhibition At The Nicolas Sursock Museum, Sarah Sabban

Regards

Focusing on the first exhibition of Islamic art in Lebanon, organized by the Nicolas Sursock Museum in 1974, this article shows how the construction and the operationalization of the concept of Islamic art overlapped with postcolonial endeavors to foster national identity. By closely examining the making of the art exhibition and tracing material histories intersecting in Beirut, it elicits constructions of the national, the secular, and the spiritual via the notion of art. It contributes to the growing scholarship on the historiography of Islamic art, regional museums, and nation-building in the second half of the 20th century.

Résumé

S'intéressant à …

"This Is Not An Exhibition. And This Is Not Beirut" A Free-Format Curatorial Platform Exploring The Space Of Beirut In The Aftermath Of The August 4 Explosion, Philippa Dahrouj

Regards

This is not an exhibition. is a platform for experimentation in the public spaces of the city through timely interventions in the form of installations, performances, discussions, walks, etc. These interventions aim to question and contest established artistic and curatorial practices by transgressing the normalization of social, political, and urban dynamics in the spaces in which they take place. They invite the audience to participate in the production of the works.
The pilot version, This is not an exhibition. And this is not Beirut., engages with Beirut in the aftermath of the August 4 explosion through artistic interventions in …

"In This Place: Reels Of Beirut" Une Installation Filmique De Hady Zaccak, Entre Nostalgie Et Amertume, Yara Nashawaty

Regards

“My Government Did This”: Exploring The Erasure Of The Beirut Port Wall, Lara Sabra

Regards

This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork to examine the affective and agentive power of graffiti in Beirut after the August 4 Beirut explosion, specifically the graffiti on the port wall: “My government did this.” The paper investigates the whitewashing of the port wall, the erasure of this phrase, and the subsequent policing that took place.
It studies how graffiti holds an emotional or affective grip on civilians and is intrinsically tied to the practice of agency. In short, the paper discusses how graffiti opens a space for the transgression of dominant or hegemonic systems of power.

Résumé

Cet article s’appuie …

"Hady Zaccak: 'In This Place: Reels Of Beirut'" La Scénographie Comme Chassé-Croisé Entre Plusieurs Espaces/Temps, Joanna Raad

Regards

Ce compte-rendu tente d’inscrire l’installation de Hady Zaccak, In This Place: Reels of Beirut, dans un concept théâtral de « scénographie d’exposition ». L’article conjecture un dialogue entre l’espace-temps des films et celui de l’observateur/spectateur. Pourquoi la fiction peut-elle jouer le rôle d’archive ? Comment le passé dialogue-t-il avec le présent ? L’ancien Beyrouth, la « Suisse de l’Orient », est-il un mythe ou une réalité ? Autant de questions abordées dans un langage interdisciplinaire.

Theorizing The Spiritual-Secular Binary In Modern And Contemporary Art Of – And By Artists From – The Swana Region, Valerie Gonzalez

Regards

The present article critically examines the spiritual–secular binary in modern and contemporary art from the SWANA region and by artists with heritage from that region who live or have lived elsewhere. Given this binary’s origin in the European Enlightenment’s view of religion, and its epistemic canonization through post-Enlightenment ideas on art and culture in the colonial era, this examination is carried out within the framework of current decolonizing art historical discourses and their postcolonial background.
The reflection begins with a key moment of global modernism, underpinned by the colonial diffusion of secularism. It then proceeds to explore the cultural shifts …

Introduction – Whither The Spiritual? Rethinking Secularism’S Legacy In Post-Ottoman Art, Hannah Feldman, Kirsten Scheid

Regards

This dossier seeks to pinpoint hazards emerging on the globally redrawn map of art and culture. It was conceived to expose and navigate the mines laid when the ostensibly methodologically secular discourse of art history turns to art made outside Euro-American cultural centers – art often considered out of sync with Euro-American modernity.¹ As commonly approached, the pinnacle of that modernity corresponds roughly to what one of us has referred to as the “decades of decolonization,” in an effort to avoid reaffirming the Eurocentrism inherent in labeling the period as ‘post-war’...

A Script And Acting Analysis Of David Mamet’S Glengarry Glen Ross, Abdelrahman Metwally

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Glengarry Glen Ross is a Pulitzer Prize-winning play by David Mamet. This paper is a practical guide for the actor to understanding the events of the play and, specifically, to approaching the role of Richard Roma, with a particular emphasis on Michael Chekhov’s psycho-physical work. First, I will discuss the circumstances, values and themes of the world of the play in relation to the character Shelley Levene as the main agent of the events. Then my focus in character analysis will shift to Richard Roma as the lead character of the ensemble. Together, the two characters create a contrasting duo …

Relationship Between Theatre Involvement And Student’S Educational Outcomes, Gabi Gonzalez

McNair Scholars Research

In this study, participants (N = 76 students) were surveyed to see if theatre involvement had any effect on their role-playing creativity, time management, and academic achievement. The survey also gathered data to see if there was any association between the amount of theatre involvement and students’ majors. The survey was made up of questions involving students’ demographics, grade point average, and theatre involvement, a Role Playing Scale (Fletcher et al. 1984), and an Academic Time Management and Procrastination Scale (Won et al. 2018). The hypothesis is that theatre involvement has a positive effect on students through their role-play creativity, …

Student Voice And Choice: Factors Influencing Student Participation In Secondary Arts Classes In An Urban Public School District, Alan D. Lambert Ed. D.

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

The purpose of this study was to capture the student voice regarding the value, importance, and relevance of visual and performing arts education in public schools. The host institution for the study was an urban school district in the southern central United States serving 75,000 students, with 55% students identified as Hispanic, and 52% of students experiencing poverty. Graduating seniors responded via questionnaires with forced choice and open-ended items regarding several topics, including what they do in their free time, how they perceive the value of arts classes at school, access to arts classes and the match of their interests …

Sanctuary: The-Construction Of Communion, Carlos Salazar-Lermont

MFA in Visual Art

This thesis narrates the development of the multimedia art installation called Sanctuary. I unwrap the theoretical background of my practice, which is rooted in the theories of deconstruction by Jacques Derrida, and the rhizome theory by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. I approach my creative process as a grammatic of matter, space, and time, constructing meaning through an interplay of significants that connect to political, social, economic, and cultural implications. In the case of Sanctuary, I sought to create a path of empathy towards Venezuelan refugees in St. Louis, Missouri through the exploration of the concept of communion. …

Spinning Plates, Anikó K.L. Sáfrán

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Spinning Plates is an intermedia exhibition based on multitasking, at times to an absurd level, to address the gendered division of care labor in a typical, heteronormative household. One hundred years into the pursuit of passing an Equal Rights Amendment, women are still taking on the majority of duties related to managing and caretaking the household and its children, even though most women have also joined the income-generating labor force. At the core of the exhibit are performance-based videos of the mother-artist multitasking, completing household chores, exercising, and creating art. Some of the artworks are action paintings, others are drawings …

Reclamation: The Crown Of African American Identity, Lindsey Kellogg

English MA Theses

African American voices have been the main sources of influence on society and culture. For this reason, it is important that African Americans speak up and reclaim their voices. Not only are their voices important, but the stories that lie behind the voices are what need to be amplified. With the application of postcolonial theory, this thesis takes modern stories located in North America depicting racist behavior towards African Americans from the year 1970 to present-day New York City in order to fully amplify the process of social struggle. As these narratives are passed down through generations serving as a …

Meet And Run, Gia M. Binner

Theses and Dissertations

A defense for Gia Binner’s MFA Thesis, Meet and Run, argues that accessible art, known in this paper as commercial dance, is a meaningful vehicle for social change and that it has the ability to dismantle the outdated, European concert dance dominance by modeling the interdependency of both worlds.

Sandstorm Spring 2022, Leslie Malland

Sandstorm: A Journal of Arts and Letters

Full Manuscript