Conferences
Conferences serve as essential hubs for scholars and practitioners to share new work and ideas, and form creative and professional connections in the field. DSA presents large Annual Conferences oriented around a general theme, as well as smaller Special Topics Conferences that delve into a more limited area of focus.
"Agonistic Acts: Anti-Racist and Decolonial Interventions for Dance Studies," closing plenary at the 2018 DSA conference Contra: Dance and Conflict, University of Malta
The Annual Conference is the principal international meeting point for all members of the Dance Studies Association. The conference program usually comprises some seventy sessions, presented over the course of four days. Papers, posters, roundtables, lecture-demonstrations, screendances and workshops are selected from abstracts sent in response to the conference call for papers through a blind peer review process. During the conference, working groups meet around their special interests, and DSA holds its Annual General Meeting as well as presents various awards and prizes. Professionalization workshops are offered for younger scholars and the social programme includes performances and parties. Graduate students are encouraged to attend and to apply for the Selma Jeanne Cohen Award for outstanding papers, as well as for travel funds through the Graduate Student Travel Grant.
The Special Topics conferences are smaller, shorter gatherings around a specific issue, theme, or area of interest within dance scholarship. They do not follow an annual schedule, but are dependent on interested parties wishing to engage the membership of DSA.
Recipients of DSA awards receive complimentary conference attendance. Graduate students are encouraged to attend and apply for for travel funds through the Graduate Student Travel Grant.
Annual Conference
The Dance Studies Association is hosting its 2019 annual conference at Northwestern University August 8-11, located on the shore of Lake Michigan with a view of the Chicago skyline. We invite you to join us for papers, panels, roundtable discussions, lecture-demonstrations, movement workshops, dance works, and screendances that address the conference theme, “Dancing in Common.”
future conferences
Dance Studies Association welcomes proposals for future conferences. For further information on how to suggest a conference or to volunteer in the organization of DSA conferences, please see our guidelines and contact the Vice President for Conferences.
past conferences
Dance Studies Association continues the tradition of Congress on Research in Dance and Society of Dance History Scholars. Peruse our past conferences below. For our published Conference Proceedings, see our Conference Proceedings.