Artist-Scholar Joni Jones Brings Performance Art Critique to UGA October 21

Artist-scholar Joni L. Jones will perform her performance art critique of the academy entitled "sista docta" in a visit to the University of Georgia on Thursday, October 21.

Jones, an associate professor of performance studies in the department of theatre and dance, and associate director of the Center for African and African-American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, will deliver her critique at 4 p.m. in Room 248 of the Student Learning Center. Admission is free.

Jones, who has received acting awards for her work in professional theatre in Austin and Washington, D.C., is currently engaged in performance ethnography and videography around the Yoruba deity Osun.

Her articles on performance and identity have appeared in Text and Performance Quarterly, The Drama Review, Theatre Insight, and Black Theatre News.

While on a Fulbright Fellowship in Nigeria (1997-98), Jones taught at Obafemi Awolowo University and contributed Theatre for Social Change workshops for the Forum on Governance and Democracy in Ile-Ife.

Her dramaturgical work includes Clay Angels for New WORLD Theatre in Amherst , MA., con flama for Frontera@Hyde Park Theatre in Austin , and Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery and Pill Hill for First Stage Productions also in Austin.

Jones received her doctorate in educational theatre from New York University and her master's in oral interpretation from Northwestern University .

Jones' visit is sponsored by the UGA Center for the Humanities and Arts and is a preliminary event to the 18 th QUIG 2005 Conference on Interdisciplinary Qualitative Studies to be held here January 7-9. The conference's theme is “Art as Research & Research as Art.”

The theme of the conference resulted from the growing interest in mergers between social scientists and artists, adding dimensionality, complexity, and accessibility to their work. Increasingly both researchers and artists have explored the space where aesthetics and communication of social meaning overlap, documenting human life in ways that are both artistic and scientific.

UGA's College of Education offers a variety of programs and experiences in Qualitative Research Studies. Students interested in pursuing careers involving the study and teaching of qualitative research methodologies are invited to apply to our doctoral programs in the Research, Evaluation, Measurement and Statistics Program (REMS).

For more information on QUIG:
http://www.coe.uga.edu/quig/

Monday, October 18, 2004
WRITER: Michael Childs, 706/542-5889, mchilds@coe.uga.edu
CONTACT: Melisa Cahnmann, 706/583-8127, cahnmann@coe.uga.edu