From ASTR President Marla Carlson, December 2020

I am grateful to Soyica Diggs Colbert, Douglas A. Jones, Jr., Shane Vogel, and their Program Committee for assembling the plenary presentations and working sessions that the conference program on our website documents. Many of these will carry forward to 2021, and 82% of the working sessions held pre-conference meetings last month. Vice President for Conferences Jimmy Noriega will send an email to the membership as soon as the conference planning team has worked out the logistics for shifting the conference from New Orleans to San Diego. This will include information about how the organizers will seek additional participants for “Theatre and Performance After Repetition,” and I look forward to seeing many of you in California next fall.

If you missed this fall’s virtual Field Conversations, I encourage you to watch them ASTR’s YouTube channel, easily accessed through our website. Thanks to all who participated in these conversations about careers beyond the professoriate, progressive mentoring strategies, season selection with an anti-racist approach, and what happens to theatre and performance departments post-Covid. You’ll also find our 2020 virtual awards ceremony in both locations, including an interview with Ric Knowles celebrating his receipt of the 2020 Distinguished Scholar Award. Watch for an announcement for 2021 award applications, which will include three new awards: the ASTR Translation Prize, the Jessica Berson Dance Research Award for scholars without secure academic employment, and the José Esteban Muñoz Award for scholars presenting at ASTR for the first time.

In addition to creating new awards, the Executive Committee has been working with other ASTR committees and other organizations to envision and implement new forms of mutual support during these precarious times. The ASTR Commons will expand in early 2021 even as this resource exchange continues to add new connections for guest lecturers and pedagogical assistance. Work continues on initiatives to plan for flexible conference options in the event that they become necessary yet again and to bring scholars from underrepresented groups as well as those without regularized institutional support into the center of ASTR’s conference, awards, publications, and leadership.

Faced with growing challenges across the field and across academia, we have formed a Fund Development Committee to pursue grant writing and other avenues for raising money from sources outside the Society. If you have experience or interest in this area, please contact me directly to discuss joining this crucial committee. And of course ASTR always welcomes tax-deductible donations. Our annual conference itself does not turn a profit but does provide a significant incentive to pay membership dues. Membership is currently down from approximately 700 members to around 450, many of whom took advantage of the flexible dues option this year. We are minimizing expenses where we can; for example, this spring’s EC meeting will be conducted on Zoom even if travel becomes possible by that time. Although much of ASTR’s work is done by volunteers including the elected officers and members of the Executive Committee, we truly need the administrative services for which we pay our Executive Director and a few other consultants. We also need to meet ongoing expenses such as our website and membership services database, and there are costs involved with the initiatives that we undertake to support our member community. Because we were not able to hold our regular business meeting this year, I’ve glad that I have this opportunity to share information about the Society’s operations.

Wishing you a restorative and generative midwinter,

Marla Carlson
ASTR President