International Committee Meeting

How PSi Thinks International (Discussion)

By convening this year’s HOW PSi THINKS? event the International Committee would like to restore discussions on the inter- as well as intra- and trans- national or cultural dynamics in PSi.

Heike Roms, Jon McKenzie and C.J. W.-L. Wee in their introduction to Contesting Performance – global sites of research are questioning the “’nested’ structure of the imperialism of performance studies”, the “combined American and British dominance of the field: ‘US/UK PS’”, but also the “West-Rest or center-periphery set of binary oppositions”. Their conclusion seems worth to be considered: “… the concerns of performance research scholars working around the world are not inevitably focused on disputing the global center’s hegemonic status. (…) the goal may be less to eliminate these binaries than to multiply and complicate them in order to reveal a more complex analytic field.”

Are we – the PSi – ready to ask ourselves whether the lower case “i” in “PS inter-national” has also served as an alibi that was helping the PSi to avoid more strict questioning of its “West” in relation to the “decapitalized” – “rest”?

PSi Board of Directors is taking efforts to make PSi geography more diverse, whether by moving its annual conferences to the new regions or by supporting initiatives for regional research clusters. The International Committee is a place where all PSi members and conference delegates are welcomed to share their ideas with respect to the further internationalization of PSi and address them to the Board.