[ecrea] Call for Papers- Mixed Bill Comedy and Gender conference

Mixed Bill: comedy and gender research network
Women and comedy symposium
University of Salford Thursday 19th October 2017

In 1985 the Guerilla Girls protested about the lack of women artists 
included in
exhibitions at New York’s many internationally renowned museums. The 
argument
underpinning their protest was that women are disproportionately 
represented as the
object of art rather than as the artists themselves. This could be 
considered to be similar
to the way the comedy industry in the UK has historically operated. 
Although women
have always been involved in the creation of humour often their 
contribution has been
overlooked, remained un-captured or simply written out of history.

Since the alternative comedy movement of the 1980s women have played a 
more active
and high profile role as the generators of performed comedy, rather than 
operating
solely as the subject for stereotypical punchlines. Put simply, ‘her 
indoors’ has become
‘her onstage’. This symposium event seeks to address the 
under-representation of
women in critical considerations of comic performance and to provide an 
opportunity to
explore the contributions made by those identifying as female to live 
and recorded
comedy.

This symposium will be the first convened by Mixed Bill, a newly established
interdisciplinary comedy and gender research network currently comprised of
researchers from the Universities of Salford, Leeds and Sheffield 
Hallam. This inaugural
event will be a vibrant mixture of academic papers, interventions, 
workshops and panel
discussions and will coincide with the opening of the 2017 Women in 
Comedy Festival
in central Manchester. As part of the symposium, attendees will be 
invited to the launch
night festivities as a chance to socialise, network and encounter 
first-hand the evolving
strategies that seek to challenge the inequalities on today’s live 
comedy circuit.
We welcome abstracts for 20 minute papers on comedy and female
performance/representation which may include, but is not limited to, the 
following
areas:

• Comedy and politics
• Intersectional issues and comedy
• Comedy and contemporary feminisms
• Comedy and female sexuality
• The female body in comedy (self-objectification and ageing)
• Comedy and women’s health and wellbeing
• Comedy and female protest

We are particularly interested in papers and interventions that explore 
the work of UK
based performers (either in the live arena or in recorded forms of 
comedy). This event is
inclusive to all genders, however the focus of the papers will be on the 
work of those
identifying as female.

Please submit abstracts by Monday 22nd May. Abstracts should be 250 
words maximum
in a Word document (not a PDF), with minimal formatting. Please also 
include (in the
same document), and as independent of this word count: name; email and 
postal
address; title and affiliation(s); recent publications / creative 
outputs; any further
relevant biographical information. Decisions to be communicated by end 
9th June.
If you have any questions please get in contact with the symposiums 
organisers.
Ellie Tomsett (Sheffield Hallam) Lisa Moore (University of Salford) and 
Kate Fox
(University of Leeds) – (mixedbill /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(mixedbill /at/ gmail.com)> 
Follow us on Twitter: @MixedBill

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