GRACLS 2020 Conference

The Graduate Association of Comparative Literature Students (GRACLS) has staged a conference and brought together students from across the 40 Acres and across America to participate and present their original research in an interdisciplinary, multicultural, and high-profile event every year since 2001. 

GRACLS is a student-run conference, providing an opportunity for early career scholars to present their developing work in a supportive environment while receiving targeted feedback from experts in their chosen fields. This spring, we are organizing our 16th Annual Conference on Comparative Literature to take place at the University of Texas at Austin on February 28-29, 2020

The 2020 conference titled “On-Stage, Off-Stage: Body, Archive, Performance seeks to bridge the gap between research on performance studies and the various creative performances in theatrical and non-theatrical settings. We offer this conference as an opportunity to inhabit and expand nuanced spaces between the following: performance “on” and “off” stage, the staged and unstaged, performed and written, theatrical and quotidian, the planned and improvised, practice and theory, the scripted and unscripted. We hope to challenge the assumed hierarchies among players, playwrights, theorists, critics, translators and audience members, and open dialogue between the assumed binaries of performance and theory. 

We believe that our theme of performance, embodiment, and archive has the capacity to generate vibrant and productive discussions on issues including, but not limited to: performing gender and sexuality, archiving performance, immigration, the subaltern, coloniality, postcoloniality and decoloniality, supremacy and performance of power. The panels of graduate students, scholars and performers that we will assemble will serve to expand our understanding of systematically discriminated, oppressed, or underrepresented cultures and viewpoints. By creating a space for discussion of these topics, we hope to be able to contribute to a more inclusive climate on campus and among students. With this as our vision, we anticipate a dynamic, inspiring series of conversations. The GRACLS conference has a proven record of success over the past fifteen years, drawing presenters from a variety of programs and departments across UT, the country, and beyond, and we are certain that this year’s conference will be especially exciting.

What is  ?

The Graduate Association for Comparative Literature Students (GRACLS) provides an organizing body and social forum for graduate students in UT’s program in Comparative Literature. It was established to provide a forum for students to engage with the comparative literature community at large and with issues related to our broader experience within the university.

How can you help?

• Please consider donating to our project. As a student organization, we rely on a range of strategic partnerships to maximize our impact across a wide range of constituencies. Through the generous donations of our academic programs and sponsors like you, we are able to offer this event to the community free of charge. You can help us provide for our venue rentals, equipment rental for our panels and presentations, and help graduate students participate in this event free of charge. 
• Please consider sharing this fundraising with your network. It would help us reach more supporters and contributors!