Call for Papers
Zirkus | Wissenschaft
Topic: Zirkussemiotik (Semiotics of the Circus)
On behalf of the Westfälische Wilhems-Universität Münster we would like to invite you to the first German conference dedicated to the topic "circus". The conference will take place from 15th to 17th April 2015 in cooperation with Cirque Bouffon. The conference will be held in English.
CFP may be found below, for further information please visit the regularly updated conference-website.
The project Zirkus | Wissenschaft aims at establishing the Circus as an object of cultural studies, which in Germany so far has been largely unexplored. For this purpose the conference wants to bring together scholars from all over the world to create an interdisciplinary network to offer the opportunity of intense scientific exchanges, and to support ongoing research projects as well as initiating further plans.
The conference, entitled Zirkussemiotik (Semiotics of the Circus), will focus on how and under which conditions meaning is produced and transmitted in the so called New Circus, and in which way this depends on the construction of meaning in traditional circus performances. Semiotics, the theory of meaning creation which analyses the use of signs and the different kinds of sign processes, will help to provide answers to these initial questions.
The conference will centre around three topics:
1. Semiotics of the traditional Circus
2. Semiotics of the New Circus
3. Possibilities of analysing New Circus performances
The three topics are going to be linked by focusing on the interactions between the traditional and the New Circus, which are important factors for the constitution of meaning in circus performances.
We welcome contributions concerning the three agenda items. Please submit an abstract in English of approximately 250-300 words length to zirkus.wissenschaft@uni-muenster.de by February 15, 2015. The expected presentation length will be 30 minutes.
We will notify participants of their acceptance by February 28, 2015.