[Commlist] CFP - Performing Freedom on Post-Globalist Stages

*Call for Papers*
*3rd International Conference Of The Centre For Art Studies / Academy Of 
Sciences Of Albania*
*PERFORMING FREEDOM ON POST-GLOBALIST STAGES*
*9-10 December 2026, Tirana*
*No fees required from authors*

*PERFORMING FREEDOM ON POST-GLOBALIST STAGES*
In 2025, the sociologist Victor Roudometof attempted to reconsider the 
theoretical lenses and flexibility surrounding the use of 
“globalization” as a concept, contributing to discussions about the 
sense of an emerging post-globalization era, a notion increasingly 
articulated since COVID-19 and the latest wars and crises. He clearly 
distinguishes between the economic and political dimensions of the 
concept and the socio-cultural understanding of “globalism.” From this 
perspective, a post-“globalization” era is primarily understood as a 
policy regime closely associated with economic neoliberalism. However, 
as Roudometof notes, globalization itself can be defined in multiple 
ways: “For example, Sterns (2010) considers connectivity, not 
institutional factors, as the key indicator of globalization, and that 
leads him, just like Sachs (2020), into antiquity and even the 
prehistoric eras. In contrast, Osterhammel and Petersson (2009) suggest 
that globalization’s emergence is tantamount to the 
post-sixteenth-century breakthroughs of Western European modernity.” As 
the theatre scholar Petar Denchev observes, "post-globalization" should 
not be understood as an end, but rather as a mutation.
Driven by anti-colonial liberation movements, imperial expansion, and 
the demand for cheaper resources during the era of technological 
revolution, the modern world witnessed the forceful historical emergence 
of nation-states. Initially presented as instruments of development, 
they later became instruments of globalization. Despite efforts to 
establish clear lines of national identity through language and culture, 
national arts continuously borrowed, exchanged, and adapted ideas, 
styles, and schools, creating local particularities within a broader 
global framework while remaining internationally intelligible and 
embraced by diverse audiences. The performing arts played an active role 
in the construction of the modern nation-state, contributing to the 
standardization of language and culture and to the canonization of 
national myths. The “national stage” was therefore not merely a metaphor 
but a concrete cultural mechanism that helped produce civic reflexes and 
cultivate a sense of national belonging among its audiences.
Just as the world once feared the technological revolution and its 
consequences, today it fears the new digital revolution, which has 
revived similarly harsh imperialistic tones in new forms. As borders 
seek to rise higher and the language of sovereignty, protection, and 
tradition re-emerges with renewed force, global connectivity is not 
disappearing; rather, it is becoming selective, strategic, and 
increasingly shaped by new power relations. What we are witnessing today 
is not the disappearance of the nation, but its reformulation under new 
historical pressures. The performing arts are not external to this 
process. On the contrary, they constitute some of its most visible 
laboratories.
Post-globalization culture, or what might also be described as an 
artificial intelligence culture, is more intensely internationalized 
than ever before. Contemporary systems of national arts funding often 
function as mechanisms through which culture is prevented from fully 
addressing the rational and emotional dimensions of the exploitation of 
the Earth, including the exploitation of human beings and genocide. 
Questions of state sovereignty should therefore be discussed alongside 
issues of food sovereignty, informational sovereignty, knowledge 
sovereignty, and privacy sovereignty within this new 
surveillance-oriented post-globalized world. Digital platforms expand 
access while simultaneously governing visibility through algorithmic 
structures. Audiences are no longer simply national or global; they are 
infrastructurally constructed. In such an environment, sovereignty no 
longer exists as a fixed territorial condition but as a performative 
process: it is staged, branded, and mediated. Festivals increasingly 
function as diplomatic stages, while cultural production operates as a 
form of soft power. Yet the same structures that promise dialogue and 
connectivity can also produce conformity. Networks of solidarity 
frequently become networks of insecurity and precarity. Artistic careers 
continue to attract individuals drawn to freedom, expression, and 
recognition, even while remaining fully aware that they may also face 
precarity, censorship, and, at worst, irrelevance. Each artist 
ultimately chooses how to negotiate this tension.
On the first day, the conference will address the historical 
relationship between the arts and the formation of nation-states. It 
will examine how artistic production has both shaped and been shaped by 
nation-state paradigms. On the second day, the focus will shift to the 
present, exploring contemporary global challenges and examining how 
theatre and music function as spaces of critical reflection, human 
empathy, and transnational dialogue.
Suggested topics include but are not limited to:

  * The state’s use of the stage to perform sovereignty
  * Funding regimes and the constraints imposed on aesthetic risk
  * Festivals as spaces of dialogue or as mechanisms for managing dissent
  * Digital mediation and the transformation of audiences into
    measurable activity
  * Art as resistance to isolationism, populism, and cultural control
  * Who remains invisible in these processes?
  * How are engaged artists today confronting the re-emergence of
    ideologically failed promises regarding the abolition of intrusive
    state power in the name of freedom?
  * Is there sufficient space for freedom to confront and resist
    imperial ambitions?
  * Performing arts and the historical formation of national identity
  * Theatre and music as tools of myth-making, canon formation, and
    cultural cohesion
  * Migration, diaspora, and transnational artistic collaboration
  * Excluded performance arts oppressed by national cultures as a
    consequence of the centrality of globalization concepts.

We welcome proposals from scholars, researchers, artists, curators, and 
cultural practitioners across disciplines, including theatre and 
performance studies, dance, musicology, cultural studies, political 
theory, communication, media, and related fields. Early-career 
researchers are also welcomed.
*Organized by:*
Dr. Anxhela Çikopano for the Centre for Art Studies / Academy of 
Sciences of Albania
*Scientific Committee (Alphabetical Order):*
Dr. Anxhela Çikopano - Centre for Art Studies / Academy of Sciences of 
Albania
Assis. Prof. Petar Dentchev, PhD - Institute of Art Studies / Bulgarian 
Academy of Sciences
Prof. António Dores - University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL).
Dr. Kreshnik Duqi - Centre for Art Studies / Academy of Sciences of Albania
Asoc. Prof. Dr. Majlinda Hala - University of Arts, Tirana
Prof. Dr. Hab. Violetta Kostka - Academy of Music in Gdansk
Prof. Daniel Nordgård - University of Agder
Dr. Francesco Scasciamacchia - Polis University, Tirana
Acad. Vasil S. Tole - Academy of Sciences of Albania
Dr. Gašper Troha - Slovenian Theatre Institute / Academy of Theatre, 
Radio, Film, and
Television, University of Ljubljana.
*Keynote Speakers (Alphabetical Order):*
Prof. Keith Negus – University of Agder
Prof. Nicholas Ridout – Queen Mary University of London
Asoc. Prof. Nicholas Tochka – University of Melbourne
Dr. Luan Topçiu - Coordinator of the Cultural Center of the Albanians of 
Romania / University of Bucharest
**
*Coordinators:*
Dr. Kreshnik Duqi
Amela Manushi
Durim Taçi
Enza Rripaj
*Submission Guidelines*

  * Abstracts should be 250–300 words, with keywords
  * Name, surname, affiliation, email address, mobile number
  * Please include a short biographical note (100 words)
  * Language of submission: English and/or Albanian
  * Submission deadline: 30 June 2026
  * Notification of acceptance: 20 July 2026

Please send abstracts and biographical notes to:
📩 (_infostudimiarteve /at/ akad.gov).al_ 
<mailto:(infostudimiarteve /at/ akad.gov.al)> and 📩 
(_anxhela.cikopano /at/ akad.gov).al_ <mailto:(anxhela.cikopano /at/ akad.gov.al)>
For further information, please contact:
📩 (_anxhela.cikopano /at/ akad.gov).al_ <mailto:(anxhela.cikopano /at/ akad.gov.al)>

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