{"id":107180,"date":"2026-01-21T17:21:45","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T22:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=107180"},"modified":"2026-01-21T22:47:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T03:47:06","slug":"innovative-research-reimagines-contemporary-circus-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2026\/01\/innovative-research-reimagines-contemporary-circus-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovative research reimagines contemporary circus studies"},"content":{"rendered":"

A multi-year initiative is uniting artists, academics and audiences from across the globe to celebrate the diversity of contemporary circus.<\/p>\n

Circus and its Others (CaiO), co-founded by Brock University Dramatic Arts Adjunct Professor Karen Fricker and Professor Charles Batson of Union College in New York, began in 2016 as a conference exploring representations of difference in circus.<\/p>\n

Since its debut in Montreal, CaiO has gained momentum and a significant following of international circus artists and academics who are expanding the boundaries of circus studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat started as a conversation between North America-based colleagues has blossomed into a truly global inquiry,\u201d said Fricker. \u201cAnd the more we\u2019ve broadened our perspectives to include traditions and cultures from the Global South, the richer the work has become.\u201d<\/p>\n

Participants in the project come from a wide array of disciplinary backgrounds, including theatre and performance studies, anthropology, sociology, history, queer and gender studies, kinesiology, cultural studies. Their explorations of otherness and difference include studies of circus performances, labour and mobility practices, education and training, and colonial and post-colonial histories, among other topics.<\/p>\n

\"A

The final presentation of an Indigenous circus workshop as part of the Achura Karpa festival brought together a number of Indigenous circus companies and artists, including the Artcirq Inuit Performance Collective and the Volodores de Papantla, during the CaiO Bogot\u00e1 conference. Photo credit: Nicol\u00e1s Mahecha.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cAt its roots, CaiO has become a diverse global community made up of people coming together to share their identities, culture, art and scholarship with each other; the deep sense of shared purpose is profound,\u201d Fricker said.<\/p>\n

The most recent CaiO conference was held in March 2024 in Bogot\u00e1, Colombia. A multimodal program of events convened more than 70 scholars and showcased a circus festival featuring more than 100 artists.<\/p>\n

An editorial committee including Fricker, Batson and colleagues Julieta Infantino (Argentina), Marco Antonio Coelho Bortoleto (Brazil), Olga Luc\u00eda Sorzano (Colombia), and Aastha Gandhi (India) have since published the first of two special issues of the peer-reviewed journal Circus: Arts, Life and Sciences<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Focused on the theme \u201cTransgressions and Challenges,\u201d the articles include an exploration of the work of female porters<\/a> \u2014 strong acrobats who lift, hold and support other acrobats \u2014 in circus, an account of the Brazilian circus company A Penca<\/a>, whose work engages with climate emergency and a critical look on the emphasis on aesthetic innovation<\/a> in circus training.<\/p>\n

The next CaiO conference is set for 2027 and will be held in Kerala, India. Based in Delhi, Aastha Gandhi is the co-organizer of the conference alongside Fricker and Batson.<\/p>\n

Circus, Gandhi said, is deeply woven into her country\u2019s cultural tapestry.<\/p>\n

\u201cHosting CaiO in Kerala is a momentous occasion. There is a rich and complex history of circus in India, impacted for decades by shifting sociopolitical landscapes. To have visitors come from many places to celebrate the art and complexity of circus today presents an exciting opportunity to share our perspectives with the world,\u201d Gandhi said.<\/p>\n

Given the widespread interest in CaiO from circus artists and academics alike over the past decade, Fricker and Batson are turning their sights on continuing to build the project in a sustainable way, including archiving conference materials and performances and identifying new leadership models that reflect the inclusive values of the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cExperiencing the transformation of Circus and its Others into a robust, global inquiry is an immense privilege, and the work doesn\u2019t stop here. We want to continue to help make space for the many diverse and beautiful voices of contemporary circus for years to come,\u201d Batson said.<\/p>\n

CaiO has been supported by the Department of Dramatic Arts, the Dean of Humanities Discretionary Fund, the Humanities Research Institute, Office of the Vice-President Research, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, and the Canada Council for the Arts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A multi-year initiative is uniting artists, academics and audiences from across the globe to celebrate the diversity of contemporary circus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":107182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[37,1,5],"tags":[15009,15008,4289,30,3166,46,2518],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107180"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107186,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107180\/revisions\/107186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}