Encounters with Circus and its Others

The Circus and Its Others is an international conference that explores questions of difference in contemporary circus. The contemporary circus is taking up ever more space on the world stage, and new academic research is looking to examine its impulses and implications. This three-day, SSHRC-funded conference asks how the mainstreaming of the field may be affecting circus’s historic status as a site for the celebration and exploitation of differences, from stagings of exceptional performing bodies to the display of “freakery.” Discussions will touch on gender, sexuality, disability, ethnicity, social class, and race.

The Friday night keynote by Jennifer Miller is free, but a fee of $25 is required for Saturday and Sunday. Please register for the conference online here. 

This conference is a collaborative partnership between Concordia University, Brock University, Union College, École nationale de cirque de Montréal, Montreal Working Group on Circus Research, Cirque du Soleil and Montréal Complètement Cirque.