Dear All We would like to thank everyone who was able to complete the online survey last month. Thank you for your patience as we have spent the time reviewing the response and waiting for the UK government to release its ‘route out of lockdown‘. We have used your responses, the latest government guidance and our own judgement regarding the global pandemic to help us make an informed decision as to how to proceed with AoMO conferences. The AoMO community is truly global and the nature of what we do and how we do it is quite often visual, performative and routed in the physical. With these things at the forefront of our minds, we have made the decision to: 1. postpone AoMO2020/1 in Liverpool to 2022. 2. host a three part-day virtual event across the 25th-27th August 2021 Please read the following information carefully regarding next steps: AoMO2022 Liverpool This will be an in-person conference (subject to guidance). We will release a new call for submissions via which you can update and refresh abstracts and ideas or submit something entirely new. The conference theme will continue to be ‘Art as Activism’. We hope that all existing stream convenors will continue to facilitate their streams wherever possible. If you had purchased a ticket to AoMO2020 you can either transfer that ticket to the AoMO2022 event or receive a full refund. Please contact Jenna to discuss (jenna.aomo@gmail.com). Further updates on AoMO2022 will follow but please email aomo2020liverpool@gmail.com if you have any immediate queries. ‘AoMO in the Pandemic’ In the absence of a conference for the past four years, we thought it important for the AoMO community to have an opportunity to meet, share their ideas and network. We appreciate how important this is, particularly with the interdisciplinary nature of our work and the fact that many of us work on the margins or even in the shadows of our academic homes. On the 25th-27th August we will host a 3 part-day event on ‘AoMO in the Pandemic’. The theme is broad as we want it to be as inclusive as possible. Ideas for submission could include: – That paper you managed to finish during the pandemic -That paper that you really mean to finish before August -The piece you had planned on doing at AoMO 2020 in Liverpool -A performance that can be done virtually -A zoom-based workshop – A first-person account of your work in the time of COVID – A panel discussion on the topic that is currently burning for you – Something else entirely The event itself will be run using the Qiqo Chat platform (https://qiqochat.com/about), using zoom as the underlying video conferencing tool. There will be a nominal fee of £30 for attending (to cover the costs of managing the event.) You can sign up to the event here. Please submit the following in no more than 500 words in a Word.doc: – Your name and contact details – The title of your piece – A list of authors/participants and their roles – An abstract/short description of your piece – Your time zone and your preferred time for presenting – How much time would be ideal for your piece – Logistical requirements (being conscious of it being an online event) Please send all submissions (no more than 500 word abstracts) to AoMOPandemic21@gmail.com by 30 April 2021. We will then dive into what we have and form a conference program. Our intent is to run three half days. We will also be working on potential plenary sessions, which may be selected from the submissions. This is all new to us, so we expect there will be bumps in the road along with delightful discoveries. We ask for your patience and forgiveness in advance. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need any further information. Best wishes Jenna, Steve and Steve |
