theatre history studies
call for papers

In their introduction to The Palgrave Handbook of Theatre and Migration (2023), Yana Meerzon
and S. E. Wilmer remind us of how migration and its attendant complexities have always been a
source of material for dramatists and theatrical performances:

Migration is not a new topic. From earliest recorded time, individuals and populations
all over the world have migrated to achieve a better life or escape subjection and the
threat of violence. The theatre has continually addressed this theme both in its
dramaturgy and in its performance practices.

The abundant number of books, edited collections, and articles on theatre and migration that
have emerged in recent years, as well as marked shifts in immigration policies and debates
across the globe, attest to this fact. To build on the fruitfulness of this critical attention and to
contribute to the ever-growing intellectual inquiry into theatre and migration, this special issue
of Theatre History Studies seeks contributions that address the rich, exciting, painful, fraught,
inspiring, beautiful, provocative, political, rousing, and [insert your own] instances that bring
theatre, history, and migration together.

Live theatre and performance can productively illuminate, trouble, and reimagine histories of
migration, even as those histories necessarily shape the possibilities of theatrical production
and the trajectories of theatre artists and productions across national boundaries. Furthermore,
how live theatre and performance engage with past and ongoing debates about migration can
transcend the presentation of powerful stories, although this fact alone can alter the place of
immigrants in the public imagination. Through post-show discussions and Q&A sessions,
through community-building events accompanying productions, and through the very travel
done by artists bringing their work across national borders, theatre impacts the realities and
the discourses of migration.

Consider a play such as Lloyd Suh’s The Chinese Lady, which emerges from archival research
into the life of Afong Moy, ostensibly the first Chinese woman to immigrate to the United
States. Suh uses metatheatrical techniques to highlight the limits of the archives of migration
and to ask whether the intimacy of performance can change how immigrants are perceived and
treated. Consider Luis Alfaro’s Mojada, which brings together ancient tragic models and a
present-day specificity to spotlight the painful challenges of an often cruel US immigration
system. Consider Arambe Productions and the ways in which the company utilizes theatre to
forge community and to give African immigrants living in Ireland a platform of self-
representation, a platform that helps rewrite a history written by others.

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Each example above, along with many others, merits a wealth of studies to trace the complex
relationships it suggests between theatrical representation and metatheatrical reflection,
artistic production and immigration law, and transnational border-crossing and local
community-building. In seeking to extend the rich tapestry of research already done on theatre
and migration, our focus for this special issue is on history/histories: theatre history, migration
history, and/or the construction of historical narratives, repertoires, and archives. We invite
submissions of scholarly articles of 6,000-8,000 words that explore one or more of the following
questions, as well as others at the intersections of theatre, history, and migration that we have
not yet imagined:
1.  What role has live theatre played in past and ongoing immigration debates? How has
theatre’s representation of or response to migration changed historically or over time? 
2.  How has theatre served to record and/or disrupt immigration histories and archives?
3.  How has theatre fostered community for immigrant populations?
4.  How have immigration laws and processes shaped theatre artists and their works? How
have theatre artists navigated or circumvented such laws and processes?
5.  How have theatrical techniques and ideas traveled across national borders?
6. How might"immigration," "immigrant," and "migrant" be understood as
performance-related phenomena?
7.  How do past creative efforts in "contact zones" illuminate current discussions of and
anxieties about the admittedly loaded and fraught notions of interculturalism,
multiculturalism, globalization, and cultural appropriation?

We also welcome works in alternative, including creative, formats but ask that you contact the
editors well before the submission deadline to discuss whether a particular format is viable.
Please send all manuscripts and inquiries to ths.editor@matc.us by January 5, 2027 with the
subject “Vol 47 Special Section Submission.”

Theatre History Studies is the official journal of the Mid-America Theatre Conference and is
published by the University of Alabama Press. Since 1981, Theatre History Studies has provided
critical, analytical, and descriptive articles on all aspects of theatre history. The journal is
devoted to disseminating the highest quality scholarly endeavors to promote understanding
and discovery of world theatre history.

Theatre History Studies accepts submissions for its general section on the full range of topics in
theatre history on a rolling deadline. Essays for the general section should be between 6,000-
8,000 words and use endnotes rather than footnotes in Microsoft Word. Submissions in
alternate formats will be considered on an individual basis. Illustrations are encouraged.
Manuscripts should be prepared in conformity with the guidelines in the Chicago Manual of
Style and the University of Alabama Press style sheet.
Please send manuscripts for the general section to: Dennis Sloan, Associate Editor, at
ths.editor@matc.us.

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