CALL FOR PAPERS: Pirandello and Popular Performance Cultures in Italy

2026-07-16

Society for Pirandello Studies Annual Conference
Saturday 24th October 2026
Tom Percival Annexe, St Cuthbert’s Society
Durham University, UK (Hybrid)

We are delighted to announce the Call for Papers for this year’s Society for Pirandello Studies annual conference in collaboration with the University of Durham: ‘Pirandello and Popular Performance Cultures in Italy’. Through time, popular and folk performances have underpinned modern Italian theatre traditions (e.g., Dario Fo’s link to Commedia dell’arte). Taking this as our starting point, the conference will focus on broadening critical horizons beyond canonical theatre within Italian Studies and, in so doing, aim to move popular performances from the peripheries into the centre of scholarly discussion. 

We particularly encourage interdisciplinary approaches that demonstrate how Pirandello, and Modern Italian Drama more widely, engage with broader questions around popular performances. We are equally interested in contributions that assess how Pirandello and other modern Italian dramatists intersect with the customs and traditions of different nations and cultures. By placing Pirandello in dialogue with other popular writers, cultures, and traditions, the conference opens new comparative frameworks for scholars working across languages, Performance Studies, Comparative Literature, Medical Humanities, and Folklore Studies. 

We invite contributions of 15 minutes on the following themes and topics: 

  • Popular performances (variety, spectacle, music, dance, mime, circus, clowning, puppets).
  • Folk theatre traditions (‘high/ ‘low’ art, cultural heritage, cultural memory, oral history).
  • Inclusive art practices (disabilities, ethnicities, genders, sexualities).
  • Healing practices on stage (tarantella, pizzica, saltarello, magic, the supernatural).
  • Embodied practices (lived experiences, choreography, gesture).
  • Audience engagement (participatory arts, immersive environments).
  • Digital mediation (cyber-performance, virtual reality, live streaming).
  • Cross-cultural/transnational connections (performance ethnographies, intercultural dynamics, repertoires, archives).
  • Original artistic productions (practice-led research, creative writing, visual arts).

We welcome papers from diverse fields, including (but not limited to) language, culture, arts, literature, dance, music, museums, archives, cultural heritage, and the medical humanities through:

  • paper presentations.
  • exhibits (e.g., photographs, film).
  • performances (e.g. music, dance, recitals, readings).

 

Submission Guidelines

Abstracts should be 250 words and accompanied by a 100 word biography. Submissions from graduate students and emerging artists are warmly encouraged. The materials must be submitted via our online form by Friday, the 4th of September, 5pm (BST)

Pirandello and Popular Performance Cultures in Italy – Fill in form

We will support travel bursaries for unwaged students and ECRs.

 

Outcomes

Following the conference, participants are encouraged to submit their papers to the Society’s peer-reviewed journal, Pirandello Studies: Modern Italian Drama: https://journals.gla.ac.uk/pirandellostudies

For any questions, please don’t hesitate to write to the Chair of the Society for Pirandello Studies: Dr Enza De Francisci (enza.defrancisci@glasgow.ac.uk)

The conference is generously sponsored by Durham University, St Cuthbert’s Society, and the Mazzini Garibaldi Foundation.