Brazilian Journal on Presence Studies

STAGING THE OLYMPICS

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Brazilian Journal on Presence Studies [Revista Brasileira de Estudos da
Presença], an open access, peer-reviewed, online journal, will be receiving
until 31 January 2016 new articles that fall within the broad theme of
STAGING THE OLYMPICS.

In August 2016, the city of Rio de Janeiro will play host to the world’s
biggest sporting event – the Olympic Games. More than 10,000 athletes from
over 200 countries will compete in events that are punctuated by a series of
spectaculars including its opening and closing ceremonies as well as the
medal awarding ceremonies marking the conclusion of each event. The Games
have often been caught up in controversy whether in relation to the illegal
performance-enhancing drugs of athletes, the future host city selection
process, or the social and economic benefits (or otherwise) of pre- and
post-Games legacies, all of which have become increasingly permeated with
tensions and interests that exceed the notion of sport as an end in itself.
Further examples can be seen by the spectacle of bodies optimized by the HD
(High Definition) television technologies and the use of recent innovations
in picture capture technologies. In addition, the Olympics is a site for the
performances of other bodies through the Para-Olympics – whose presence
can be traced back to World War 2 invoking ideas of bodies marked by
conflict (which can be further developed into considerations of the tensions
brought by the binomial natural / artificial).

Moreover, considering the Brazilian context leading up to the Olympics in
Brazil, it can be said that these elements compound one on top of the other
where  following on from the unprecedented demonstrations against the World
Cup in 2014, Rio 2016 promises to offer an international stage for those
seeking to both promote Brazil’s emergence from the wings of its fellow
BRICS countries as an economically successful nation of modernity and those
staging protests as a new, diverse wave of politically complex agents for
change (where once again the host country becomes caught up by the tensions
that seek to reconcile high financial investments with local priorities and
needs).

To mark the Olympic and Para-Olympic Games coming to South America for the
first time, the Brazilian Journal on Presence Studies [Revista Brasileira de
Estudos da Presença], an open access online journal, aims to provide an
opportunity for exploring the dual themes of protest and spectacle.
Contributors might offer theoretical, empirical, and/or historical accounts
of the impact of the Olympic and Para-Olympic Games on performance (and
vice-versa) in relation to one or more of the following:

·      Rio de Janeiro and spectacle
·      Amateurism and professionalism in performance
·      Medals, the podium and ceremonies
·      Sport, performance and the city
·      The Olympics and The Para-Olympics
·      The Olympics as aesthetics
·      Staging the political in Rio 2016
·      Staging sexualities and the Olympic Games
·      The Olympics and notions of ‘community’
·      Performance, economics and the Olympics
·      Opening and closing ceremonies
·      Globalisation and internationalisation
·      Counter-Olympic stagings
·      The Olympics and the performative body
·      The Olympics and conflict
·      The Olympics, training, pedagogy, and performance

The journal expects to receive works derived from research with a conceptual
engagement in the field of the Performing Arts and will give particular
consideration to those utilising images and video to develop their
reflections. Submissions should conform to the journal’s standards and be
posted directly to our submission system to follow the general evaluation
process of the journal by clicking on the corresponding section (Staging the
Olympics). The journal does not charge submission or publication fees and
uses the double-blind peer-review system. The text can be in Portuguese,
Spanish, English, or French, and will be published in two languages. Authors
sending texts in Portuguese or Spanish will be required to send an English
translation. More information can be found on our website,
.