Withdrawals: Nazlı Ümit and Lawrence Switzky
Thursday, October 13, 8:00 am–10:00 am
Promenade B
session will be recorded and available for later viewing online
Chair: Fethiye Meltem Türköz (Boğaziçi University) and Deniz Başar (Boğaziçi University)
Forum participants:
Mark J. Sussman (Concordia University, Montreal)
Lawrence Michael Switzky (University of Toronto)
Nazli M. Umit (Istanbul Kultur University)
This forum focuses on puppetry scholarship on traditional and applied engagement as well as puppetry's links to gendered emergent technologies and posthumanism. As a cultural form that is at the margins of many centers, puppets have been vehicles for political and social critique. However, like other cultural genres, they have also been instrumentalized by authoritarian regimes. Conceived as "performing objects," puppets can include an array of materials, objects, and things brought to life by a puppeteer or actor. Traditional puppetry practices are changing as women enter male spheres, and competition for UNESCO listing alters communication and changes how the craft is represented to the public.