2020 ATHE Conference Middle Eastern Theatre Focus Group Roundtable: Pedagogy and Absence

Let us reimagine the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) 2020 conference by revisiting its overarching theme, "Combustion ⇔ Energy ⇔ Resilience ⇔ Drive ⇔ Resilience ⇔ Energy ⇔ Combustion," a series of words organized in a circular format delivering a timely message amid a uniquely chaotic moment in the history of the United States. In the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Black Lives Matter has occupied the streets demanding the imposition of substantial reforms on the police force; the deadly COVID-19 pandemic continues to devastate the country, unmasking the ugliness of the capitalist system that has been busy pushing those most vulnerable toward their deathbeds; President Trump went through the process of impeachment and came out unscathed; Parasite swept the Oscar as the first non-English film directed by Bong Joon Ho; the United States unilaterally decided to assassinate Qasem Soleimani, a top Iranian military official, and in retaliation Iran bombed one of the US military bases in Iraq; Iran, in the process of carrying out its retaliatory plan against the United States, mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian commercial carrier, flight 752, with 167 passengers, mostly Iranians, onboard.

In spite of the countless seismic events that have taken place over 2020, it was these last several points that informed my (Rana Esfandiary's) approach in developing the Conference Call for Papers (CFP) as the conference planner for the Middle Eastern Theatre (MET) focus group at ATHE. I aimed to invite artists, scholars, and educators to conceptualize strategic ways of promoting the visibility of the Middle Eastern region and its culture in an academic environment. While juggling different ideas for writing the CFP, I again found myself thinking about the circular theme of ATHE and how it metaphorically summarized the years of attempts made by those of us working in/on performance in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region and its diasporas, struggling to put our field in conversation with the myriad topics taught within the departments of theatre, dance, and performance in the United States. I thought about the resilience that it takes to push for the visibility of a field that has been kept in its "emerging" status for decades; and, the drive needed to challenge stereotypes that describe the MENA world as a place plagued by barbarism and Islamic fanaticism.

In response to the years of marginalization of MENA artists, scholars, and educators within the academic setting, MET put forth a CFP focusing on the decolonization of curricula and seasons designed by university theatre departments. Our guiding questions were: How can artists and scholars in the diaspora intervene and ultimately restructure the rhetoric of US theatre and performance within a higher education setting? How might the representation of the "Other" on our stages and in our classrooms begin the process of decolonizing our syllabi and production seasons? And, how is it possible to narrate the story of the "Other" without reiterating the stereotypes attached to the so-called Middle East region and its citizens?

Upon reflecting on these questions, I organized a roundtable where we started the conversation by addressing the title of the session itself: "Pedagogy and Absence." Prior to the roundtable, I had asked the presenters to circulate syllabi among the group, especially those with a focus on the representation of MENA art and culture. While I was studying the syllabi, I came across two questions posed by Marjan Moosavi in her syllabus, "What is Middle-East?" and "Is Islam anti-theatre?" I pondered on those questions trying to figure out why, when MENA educators are offered the rare opportunity to teach about the region's art and culture, they have to start from such a basic entry point?

Michael Malek Najjar provided a poignant response by stating, "I think what we're finding is that we are invisible because we've been outside of the academy for a very long time with very few exceptions. And the stories that have been told...