Call for Papers: Right to Perform, Right to Resist—Performing Arts Shaping Crisis

The Faculty of Dramatic Arts, University of Arts in Belgrade (FDU), invites researchers, artists, students, theatre and performing arts practitioners, as well as cultural media theorists to participate in the Online International Scientific Conference Right to Perform, Right to Resist: Performing Arts Shaping Crisis, taking place 20–21 October 2025.

This event critically explores the political potential of performing arts during times of social crisis. Recent student protests in Serbia have highlighted the power of artistic and civic resistance, exposing corruption and institutional breakdown. Against this backdrop, the conference asks whether theatre can move beyond reproducing power structures to become a space for liberation, critique, and collective action.

Key questions include: 

• Can theatre adopt principles of horizontality and mutual responsibility?
• Can art transform crisis—redirect it, reshape it, and generate new forms of solidarity and communal experience rather than merely reflect it?

Submit your proposal:

• Abstract (up to 300 words)
• Submission via online form

Deadline for submissions: 15 September 2025

Notification of acceptance: 1 October 2025

The conference will be held in English. Participation is free of charge. Contributions from diverse disciplines and career stages are welcome.

For further questions, please contact: right2performconf@gmail.com

The FDU encourages you to share this open call with colleagues and networks interested in exploring the role of performing arts in political imagination and social reality.