Artistry@Work Series  

by Maison des Sciences de l’Homme–Université Clermont Auvergne, in collaboration with the RAI

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Monday, 24 March 2025,  4:00-6:00pm GMT

“Becoming a Dancer, Becoming Mobile”:
Navigating mobility regimes in the field of European contemporary dance

Speaker: Julien Debonneville, Hautes École Spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale

Discussant: Robert Simpkins, SOAS & Sainsbury Institute

 

Abstract:

This seminar will examine the way in which mobility acts to structure artistic careers in the transnational field of contemporary dance. It shows how mobility regimes constitute a professional norm in which dancers are socialised, but also how they are closely linked to the acquisition of a symbolic capital that is a determining factor in the construction of their careers. Finally, it highlights the tensions resulting from these mobility regimes in terms of precariousness and constraint, especially towards the end of the dancer’s career.

 

Biographical note:

Julien Debonneville holds a Ph.D. in social sciences from the University of Geneva. During his Phd, he was also a visiting scholar at the University of the Philippines – Diliman, and at the University of Berkeley. Following a postdoctoral stay at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen, he worked as a senior researcher at the Institute of Gender Studies of the University of Geneva. Since 2023, he works at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland. His research has primarily focused on transnational mobilities, globalized domestic work, inequalities, contemporary dance, public spaces, and access to social policies. His recent books include Devenir travailleuse domestique. Perspectives philippines (Seismo 2023) and L’industrie mondialisée du travail domestique aux Philippines : Recruter, former et exporter l’altérité (2023, ENS Éditions).

Robert Simpkins is a social anthropologist interested in our engagement with the world through creative practices. His passion for music and sound drives his research, focusing on performance and relations of sound in public space. His ethnographic research is largely conducted in Tokyo, Japan, and deals with interrelations of sound and self, the conflicts and complexities of urban space, the body, gendered space, affect and wellbeing. He is co-founder of the Sound Loss Collective, a group dedicated to the exploration and representation of sound in social research, and producer of Artery, an AHRC supported podcast on art, authorship and anthropology, which he runs with Dr Iza Kavedžija (Cambridge). Robert is currently crafting new projects, including a short film about unhoused music.

 

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Artistry@Work is an online Seminar Series in the Anthropology of Artists & Artisans, running 2024–2025 

Maison des Sciences de l’Homme–Université Clermont Auvergne, in collaboration with the Royal Anthropological Institute

Organisers:  Dr Raphaël Blanchier & Professor Trevor Marchand

This seminar series in anthropology explores the situated practices of ‘artistry at work’ and, more broadly, the working lives and career trajectories of artists and artisans plying their trades in regions around the globe. The scope of the series also encompasses studies of occupations not conventionally categorised as “artistic” but that nevertheless foster creativity among (some) practitioners and even accommodate the development of “artist” identities. 

Find a list of all events here.

 

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