鈥淲hose Freedom? Worksites of Freedom and the Aesthetic of Solidarity鈥�, Symposium Programme
Day 1: Thursday, May 14, 2026
9.00-9.30 Registration
9.30: 9.45 Welcome and Introduction of the research project (Silvija Jestrovic)
9.45 - 11.05 Panel I: Ethical provocation of censorship, everyday solidarity and temporary cultural commons as manifestations of freedom
(Chair Silvija Jestrovic)
Dragan Todorovic, 鈥淎uto-censorship: The Happiness Pill鈥�
Jovana Karaulic & Jelena Knezevic, 鈥淩eassembling the Festival as a Temporary Cultural Commons – The Case of Ne: BITEF鈥�
Reka Polonyi, 鈥淭owards an aesthetics of everyday solidarity: rethinking what constitutes political performance in time of crisis鈥�
11.05-11.20 Break
11.20-12.20 Panel II: Performing Worksites of Freedom: Singing, Listening, Moving
(Chair Adrian Kear)
Ioana Szeman, 鈥淢usic, Performance and Resisting Unfreedom: Roma Musicians at the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition鈥�
Jisha Menon, 鈥淔eminist Performance and the Solidaristic Subject鈥�
12.20-13.20 Lunch
13.20-14.40 Panel III: Aesthetics of Solidarity: from the individual to the collective
(Chair Jovana Karaulic)
Babatunde Allen Bakare & Gbenga Emmanuel Adeboye, 鈥淲hose Freedom? Whose Road? Performing Collective Liberation and the Aesthetic of Solidarity in Femi Osofisan鈥檚 Red is the Freedom Road鈥�
Konrad Szczebiot, 鈥淔reedom at Sea and in Revolt: Staropolska Republicanism and Contemporary Polish Stagings of Classical Drama鈥�
Alessandra De Martino, 鈥淥n the Wings of Freedom鈥� (performance lecture)
14.40-14.55– Break
15.00- 16.00 Workshop with Adrian Kear & Theresa Nelson:
Missing Actors: Aesthetics of absence and the politics of disappearance
16.00 – 16.15 Break
Public Event:
Dialectics of Freedom: Embodiments, Worksites and Solidarities
(Moderator Silvija Jestrovic)
16.15 – 17.15Keynote Session 1
Mai Albattat: Spatial Geographies that Defy Erasure: Infrastructures of Violence, Memory, and the Politics of Imagination
17.15-17.30 Break
17.30 - 18.45 Cinema and Solidarity Presents: Films from the UK Student Encampments (film screening 73 min)
18.45 - 19.30 Worksites of Freedom and the Aesthetic of Solidarity (discussion)
20:00 Dinner
Day 2: Friday, May 15, 2026
9.00-10.00 Keynote 2:
Rami Salameh: Embodied Resistance: Palestinian Violence and the Dialectics of Becoming Free in the Global South
10.00 - 10.10
10.10-11.30 Panel IV: Spaces of Freedom
(Chair Ioana Szeman)
Dominika Fleszar, 鈥淧erforming Freedom in Transit: Polish Military Theatre and the Embodied Politics of Exile, 1940-1946鈥�
Olivia Lamont Bishop, 鈥淔reedom, Distance, and the Politics of Place in The Land鈥檚 Heart Is Greater Than Its Map鈥�
Michele Aaron: "Cinema and Solidarity: harnessing the 鈥榣iberated spaces鈥� of student encampments for Gaza through film鈥�
11.30-11.45 Break
11.45 -13.05 Panel V:Decolonising Freedom(s)
(Chair Dragan Todorovic)
Jigisha Bhattacharya, 鈥淧olitical Incarceration, Decolonization and Internationalism in 20thCentury Indian agit-prop genres鈥�
Kishan Katira, 鈥淧an-AsianistAnatta: Nishida, S艒seki, Gandhi, and the pursuit of freedom from the mortal binds of British unilinear historicity鈥�
Xueting Luo, 鈥淔reedom in Relation: The Circulation of Energy in Chinese Embodied Aesthetics鈥�
13.05-14.00 Lunch
14.00 -15.20 Panel VI: Limits and Possibilities of Solidarities: Testimony, Pedagogy and Agency
(Chair Jisha Menon)
Hind Sabah Bilal, 鈥淚mpossible Freedoms: Performing Survival, Testimony and the Limits of Agency in Heather Raffo鈥檚 Noura鈥�
Manuel Henriques, 鈥�If I could sink my teeth into the whole earth:A performance lecture based on theatrical experience in Carregueira Detention Centre in Lisbon and Paulo Freire鈥檚 The Pedagogy of the Oppressed鈥�
Anuj Deshpande & Jigisha Bhattacharya, Songs, Incarceration, and Freedom: A Performance Lecture on Prison Songs from postcolonial India
15.20 – 15.30 Closing reflections/ discussion