Geographies of Learning: Theory and Practice, Activism and Performance (review)

In her essay "Spatializing Feminism," geographer Linda McDowell notes the importance of examining connections between "material, symbolic, and discursive constructions of space, in situated theory, in imagined communities, in the social constructions of different visions of space, and in the performative and fictive nature of subjectivities and social relations." Analogously, Jill Dolan's Geographies of Learning: Theory and Practice, Activism and Performance prompts readers to interrogate attachments to and meanings of positionality in very specific material, symbolic, and discursive spaces: in disciplinary locations in academic departments of theatre and drama, English, performance studies, women's studies, gay/lesbian/queer studies; in theatre and performance practice; and in political activism within and outside the academy.

Throughout this moving collection of essays, Dolan casts herself in the position of translator and mediator "in between" communities often fractured by (false) binaries. On the faultlines of tensions between academic advocates of "theory" and proponents of "practice," between performing artists and critics of performance, and between activists within and those outside of academic institutions, Dolan demonstrates the value of critical engagement, respectful code-switching, and ways in which a passionate commitment to advocacy for progressive causes coupled with serious regard for the process of teaching and learning can bridge ideological gaps.

Dolan starts with her own locations in women's and gender studies and gay/lesbian/queer studies—interdisciplines, like performance studies and critical race studies that, as Julie Thompson Klein notes, implicitly share "an epistemology that dismantles the boundary separating knowledge from action, discipline from politics." Dolan then charts a path that honors performance as a way of knowing in the classroom as well as in larger cultural contexts. Recounting her own ideological foundations, Dolan states, "Feminism brought me to an embodied approach to learning for which performance offered a strategy" (75). Thus, the political and epistemological effects of performance as a way of knowing and acting in the world—as means as well as end—are at the heart of this collection and unite these essays. Performance helps us navigate the often contested ground of theorizing and activism, providing a means of thinking critically about art and politics and the material doing of creative work and political activism.

The theory/practice binary has had an invidious effect on constituencies of academics and activists as well as those of artists and critics. Dolan places herself on the fulcrum of these debates, reminding readers that "theorizing is, in fact, about reenvisioning values" and that such work "has to be shared more widely for more and various communities to understand its visionary import" (39). Citing her past experience as director of CLAGS (City University of New York's Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies), Dolan notes that even when the values and goals of queer theorists within the academy and those of gay/lesbian/queer activists in other settings are closely allied, competing languages and discourses often serve to distance academics and activists from each other and to foster distrust. To those who object to the use of theory as "jargon," Dolan contends that in the arts as in the sciences, "new ideas need new languages" (3), but she implores readers to travel with her "outside of such self-enclosed spaces" as the academy and to translate ideas into vernacular languages "so that more people can join the community" (92) who can be addressed and inspired by progressive critiques.

Geographies of Learning has particular application for scholars, critics, and practitioners of theatre and performance studies. The institutional, social, and ideological demands that tug on us are often played out on a turf that constructs theatre as anti-intellectual "entertainment" and opposes performance practice and critical theory. Yet, as Dolan notes, theories of the performative are the bedrock of many current critical debates and are deployed by numerous disciplines. How, then, do we bring theatre practice and performance theory into meaningful dialogue? Dolan...