Conquergood and Hybrid Scholarship

"Performance studies struggles to open the space between analysis and action, and to pull the pin on the binary opposition between theory and practice. This embrace of different ways of knowing is radical because it cuts to the root of how knowledge is organized in the academy."
-Conquergood, "Performance Studies: Interventions and Radical Research," in The Performance Studies Reader, p. 145-6

"Scriptocentrism is the hallmark of Western imperialism."
-Conquergood, p. 147

"I want to be very clear about this point: textocentrism--not texts--is the problem."
-Conquergood, p. 151

-hybrid scholarship produces creative performances alongside written research
-Conquergood, p. 152

Conquergood reminds me of Jackson in impressing that we should be departmentally inclusive and try to cultivate practical and creative projects alongside research. As someone who is neither a performer nor really a researcher of performance, I still think this injunction has value for me. We all end up in the English department because at some point in our lives we really liked to read, but many of us also arrived here harboring a desire to write. Some of the scholars I admire most were active both in research within their field and creative writing outside of it, and you can see both sides of their work overlapping and enriching each other. In the same way, I want to hold onto the enjoyment of writing as I delve into a research-heavy field. Even when my creative writing is not suitable for the light of day, it helps me better appreciate and understand the things that I am reading.