Performance Studies

With the current emphasis and intellectual trend in not just humanities towards the analysis of Culture as a major play ground of various economic, social and political forces, it is important to have a program that could bind various strands of performing arts practices in India to inform the about the contemporary practices and discourses in India and also be informed by them in return.

(Photo: Peter Brook's Mahabharata)

The School of Culture and Creative Expressions, Ambedkar University, Delhi has designed a programme which is envisioned as a dialogue between practice and scholarship that seeks to augment the perspective with critical knowledge about various issues concerned, which would engage and instil the scholars and practitioners in an act that may ultimately lead them to connect with the civil society and the state and bring about works which have a positive impact on the society as a whole. 

The program MA Performance Studies would use multiple disciplinary perspectives borrowing its major theoretical formulations from ancient theories of arts across culture, primarily from theories from literature, philosophy and anthropology to very recent mode of communication and digital dynamics of 21st century to analyze and critically understand the various performance processes and practices, both by engaging with theory and practice. In the process it would hope to contribute in the development of engaged scholarship in the field with a unique perspective given the rich varied experience situated and informed by the culture and heritage of India. These are in tune with AUD’s vision of delivering higher education with quality in an equitable environment as well as of generating knowledge and capacity building among individuals and institutions.

As mentioned earlier that Culture and its products are also being globalized in this age. Thus to study the culture in transition and to reconnect it with the society, Performance Studies has been established as a discipline in many renowned universities investing substantial scholarship in this specialization. In India too in the recent years there has been a surge in a kind of new interaction between performing arts, technologies and the social quotient. Thus, this is high time that such a discipline is offered to the students in India, so that they could benefit by this course to develop a unique critical thinking and could also implement it in their practice.

A vast amount of literature is already available with respect to various dimensions of Performance the world over. Some amount of books have already been procured for the library and the SCCE, in close coordination with the library and IT services is in the process of procuring more as well as ensuring subscription to journals/e-journals like TDR, ATJ, NTQ Cambridge Books Online, SAGE etc, so that we have access to large number of resources.

Being situated in Delhi, it has access to lending libraries like American Center Library, British Council Library, Sahitya Akademi Library, and consultation libraries like Sangeet Natak Akademi Library, Central Secretariat Library, National School of Drama library, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, School of Arts and Aesthetics library, JNU for books and audio-visual material for the course.

for further references:-

http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic649702.files/Peformance_Studies.pdf

(image courtesy:http://mmimageslarge.moviemail-online.co.uk/mahabharata_img.jpg )