Performative Turn in Cultural Studies, Then and Now

The performative turn or a paradigmatic shift that centers around the concept of performance, has urged cultural studies scholars to move beyond the “culture-as-text” approach to the kinetic turn, which puts “culture into motion” (Rosaldo 1989). As performance theorist and cultural critic Dwight Conquergood explains, the move encourages cultural studies researchers to pay attention to the embodiment of knowledge in the “process, change, improvisation, and struggle,” which transgresses the fixity and stability of the “textbound structure of the academy.” In honoring Cultural Typhoon’s gestures of “swaying” and “guerrilla performance” that set cultural studies in motion to pivot into a generative conversation, our panel will ruminate on the performative turn and what that means in the contemporary state of the discipline. In this group presentation, three scholars trained in urban geography, performance studies, and cultural studies will put their respective performance-based research into a conversation to propose a set of questions for cultural studies to push its boundaries. As a group, the panelists will address the following questions: How does researching performance in cultural studies encourage us to consider new forms of pedagogy and research methodologies? How does cultural studies do performance differently as opposed to disciplines like performance studies or anthropology? How does thinking about the politics of motion and kinesthetics from cultural studies perspectives allow us to imagine the discipline’s new life and alternatives under today’s destructive political climate? The group presentation will showcase Anjeline De Dios’ work on overseas Filipino performers and their cultural labor, Roberto Castillo’s work on the space of African music and dance in China, and Soo Ryon Yoon’s work on racial minorities and their performance in South Korea. Each of us will engage with one another to converge at the intersection of cultural studies, performance, interAsian connectivity, and minoritarian politics.