[Linganth] Role-Play Workshop Series: Call for Applications

[Grigory Gorbun]

We invite researchers to participate in a short series of online workshops
on the topic of role-playing. The series is organized through the
University of Chicago with the goal of publishing a special issue on the
topic. Building on the recent developments in the field of role-play game
studies (Zagal & Deterding 2018), we aspire to broaden the scope of the
literature by examining not only RPGs but role-plays in other contexts such
as moot courts, therapeutic supervision, and mass media (e.g., the HBO
series “The Rehearsal”). Specifically, we seek works that examine
role-playing in their social context to understand their discursive and
embodied content and effects. We are looking for contributions representing
a wide range of disciplines, with a particular interest in interactional
analysis. The workshop series will consist of online meetings during which
we will read and discuss each paper, towards a greater collective
understanding of the analytic potential of role-play.



To apply, please submit a 300 word abstract through this google form
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://forms.gle/KXuwqRgZUmjJxQaT8__;!!BpyFHLRN4TMTrA!6JhIIL5hJwppmiAfY4VXuqUhvrSy16Yt8W0-ylEZxStarmqVFTH2TRcYlheCfI3X5Dm731dN6NdRloVeSuk2imM$>
by February 15, 2023. We will send out invitations to the participants by
February 27. The workshops will take place in the month of April. If you
have any questions, please contact Grigory Gorbun (ggorbun at uchicago.edu),
Katie Gibson (gkate at uchicago.edu), or Lily Ye (lilyye at uchicago.edu).



About the Workshop: Conceptualizing Role-Play



Role-play takes many forms: from large-scale fantasy larping (Vorobyeva
2015) to small therapeutic groups, from formal professional training to
children's games (Paugh 2005; Seltzer 2019). We conceptualize role-play as
being asymptotically bounded on one side by actual role relations and on
the other by virtual play scenarios. Role-play occupies the spectrum of
positions between these two theoretical poles of actual and virtual,
identity and alterity. Taking inspiration from classical studies of social
roles (Goffman 1959) and the social meanings of play (Callois 1961), we
want to draw attention to the consequentiality of play, the improvisational
nature of "real life" (Silverstein 1998), and the blurry line between the
two as they meet in role-playing. We are looking for contributions that
elucidate how and why role-plays set up fictional realities and real
fictions.



While theater performances and competitive games have often been taken as
metaphors to describe and analyze how worlds are socially constructed and
contested (Turner 1982), this workshop will approach role-play as an
alternative metaphor and genre of interaction from which to build a
foundation for understanding social processes. Role-plays are distinctive
in offering explicit meta-commentaries about the shared fiction/reality
being produced. Before the role-play begins, rules and roles are announced
to establish the frame which bounds the role-play as a self-contained text.
Yet, this metadiscursive frame holding the role-play apart from reality is
never fixed, being both citable and contestable. What happens when players
step out of character, breaching the boundary between worlds; or when they
"break the fourth wall," straddling the inside and outside of the frame?
What kinds of social critique or commentary are made possible by
role-plays, and what can this tell us about the world beyond the role-play?
What role do role-plays have in the social construction of institutional
identities (Carr 2009)? How do players manage situations where it is
difficult to discern whether an event occurred in the real world, in the
play world, or both (Schwarztman 1981)? After the role-play ends, players
and observers often debrief and evaluate the play. Were the performances
sufficiently detached from real life, or sufficiently true to life? Was the
play fun enough, real enough, moving enough? How should things change for
the next time around? Should there be a next time around? How do these
evaluations affect the meaning and consequentiality of role-plays?



Role-play encourages a heightened reflexivity in dealing with ambiguities
of meaning suspended amongst competing frames. As such, role-plays are a
fertile site for studies of the discursive, interactional ordering and
disordering of social life. The purpose of this workshop series is to
facilitate exchange of experience and foster dialogue across disciplines
between researchers interested in the complex phenomenon of role-play.



Deadlines:

February 15 - Abstracts due

February 27 - Notifications sent to participants

March 27 - Papers due

April/May - Workshop series



Bibliography:



Caillois, R. (1961). Man, Play, and Games. Illinois University Press.



Carr, E. S. (2009). "Anticipating and inhabiting institutional
identities."  American

Ethnologist 36(2): 317-36.



Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Anchor Press.



Paugh, A.L. (2005). Multilingual play: Children's code-switching, role
play, and agency in

Dominica, West Indies. Language in Society, 34(1), 63-86.



Schwartzman, H. (1981). Hidden Agendas and Formal Organizations or How to
Dance at a

Meeting. Social Analysis, 9, 77-88.



Seltzer, K. (2019). Performing ideologies: Fostering raciolinguistic
literacies through role-play

in a high school English classroom. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy,
63(2),

147-155.



Silverstein, M. (1998) The improvisational performance of culture in
realtime discursive practice.

In Creativity in Performance, edited by R. K. Sawyer. Ablex Publishing

Corporation, 265–312.



Turner, V. (1982). From Ritual to Theater: The Human Seriousness of Play.
Performing Arts

Journal Publications.



Vorobyeva, O. (2015). Constructing group identity during live-action role
playing games.

Anthropology & Archeology of Eurasia, 54(1), 68-80.



Zegal, J. P., & Deterding, S. (2018). Role-Playing Game Studies: A
Transmedia Approach.

Routledge.


-- 
Grigory Gorbun
Department of Anthropology
University of Chicago
https://anthropology.uchicago.edu/directory/grigory-gorbun
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