Within the current European political developments, the notion of collaboration has arguably gained acute new relevance.

Following two symposia in 2012 and 2013, as well as the recent publication of the edited collection Collaboration in Performance Practice: Premises, Workings and Failures (Palgrave 2016), Noyale Colin and Stefanie Sachsenmaier will hold a full-day research event on the Politics of Collaboration with a specific focus on current European dynamics.

The event will be hosted by the Theatre Arts Department at Middlesex University, in collaboration with the Performing Arts Department at the University of Winchester.

In order to initiate a new phase of what is an ongoing project, we welcome the attendance and participation of researchers, artists and students to engage with the following issues:

• Can collaboration offer ways of exploring and addressing political issues through performance? What kinds of social life are we producing in performing Europe today?
• Can ways of co-working in performance respond to the crisis of togetherness?
• To what extent can collaborative performance practice be a means of challenging dominant modes of production in contemporary society?
• How does collaboration in performance practice speak to wider conditions of contemporary society including precarious labour, composite subjectivity, cultural boundaries and conflicting ethics?
• Could the artist employing collaboration as a strategy to resist alienated modes of production constitute the ideal ‘elite worker’ through her/his intended escapism of precarious working conditions?
• Can modes of working together in performance act as a significant force in fostering social change in times of crisis

The event will feature presentations, roundtables and performances. We will also launch the new edited book on collaboration as part of this event.