Review: HELAAS Young Scholar Symposium – ‘Conflict and Negotiation in American Culture(s)’ (Online)
HELAAS Young Scholar Symposium triumphantly defied the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in an innovative, fully digital format which comprised a week-long asynchronous phase, and a synchronous Q&A session phase on September 19, 2020. However, the symposium’s creative surprise, i.e. the production of the play Women of Ciudad Juarez by the American theatre company TeatroTravieso/ Troublemaker Theatre – along with its post-performance workshop on social theatre politics, aesthetics, and feminicide by educator and director Jimmy Noriega – had to comply with the initial planning and inevitably preceded the aforementioned digital turn of the symposium as it was held on March 6, 2020. The symposim further welcomed two special guests: EAAS President Philip McGowan and US Consul General, Elizabeth Lee who both commented on the significance of bridging conflicts particularly in the current pandemic climate. The conference theme of ‘Conflict and Negotiation in American Culture(s)’ problematised the centrifugal and centripetal forces embedded in contemporary […]