Doctoral Dissertation Research: Postsocialist Movement: Performance, Political Economy, and Transmigration Between Guinea and the United States

在Michael McGovern博士的指导下，耶鲁大学博士候选人Adrienne Cohen将研究表现性文化与后社会主义背景下政治经济变化之间的关系。研究者提出了表现性实践与政治经济学之间的相互关系，其中政治经济动态通过表演表达，表演艺术家在呼唤新的社会和伦理秩序中发挥作用。调查这一命题的研究将在几内亚、西非和美国进行。与世界其他地区的社会主义国家一样，几内亚的社会主义国家ssamkou toursams（1958-84）资助了表达文化的现代化，特别是舞蹈和打击乐，为民族主义政治服务。当社会主义随着图尔格的死而结束时，新政权大幅减少了政府对艺术的资助。被国家抛弃的表演艺术家们成立了私人剧团，并在20世纪90年代开始移民，其中许多人在美国定居。该项目涉及两代来自几内亚的舞者和打击乐手：一代在社会主义时期接受培训，另一代在后社会主义时代接受培训。通过对几内亚首都科纳克里的艺术家、加州和纽约的移民艺术家进行多地点的民族志田野调查，本研究考察了几内亚及其侨民之间经济和文化交流的后社会主义条件。整个研究过程中的数据收集将涉及民族志方法的组合，包括：半结构化访谈，参与者观察，档案媒体研究，移民叙述和焦点小组，参与者讨论相关表演的视频和音频记录。这项研究很重要，因为它将是第一个解决表演艺术、后社会主义和轮回的融合问题的研究；它将为全球化和跨国主义条件下的社会主义及其后果的理论提供一个新的维度。资助这项研究也支持了研究生的教育。

Yale University doctoral candidate Adrienne Cohen, supervised by Dr. Michael McGovern, will investigate the relationship between expressive culture and political-economic change in post socialist contexts. The researcher proposes a reciprocal relationship between expressive practice and political economy in which political-economic dynamics are expressed through performance and performing artists play a role in calling new social and ethical orders into being.Research to investigate this proposition will be conducted in Guinea, West Africa, and in the United States. The Guinean socialist state of Sékou Tourés (1958-84), like other socialist states in other parts of the world, subsidized the modernization of expressive culture, particularly dance and percussion, in the service of nationalist politics. When socialism ended with Touré's death, the new regime drastically reduced government arts patronage. Performing artists, abandoned by the state, formed private troupes and began to emigrate in the 1990s, many taking up residence in the United States. This project engages two generations of dancers and percussionists from Guinea: one trained during the socialist period, and the other trained in the post socialist era. Through multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork among artists in Guinea's capital city of Conakry, and among transmigrant artists in California and New York, this study examines post socialist conditions of economic and cultural exchange between Guinea and its diaspora. Data collection throughout the study will involve a combination of ethnographic methods, including: semi-structured interviews, participant observation, archival media research, migration narratives, and focus groups, in which participants discuss video and audio recordings of relevant performances. The research is important because it will be the first to address the convergence of performing arts, post socialism, and transmigration; it will contribute a new dimension to theories of socialism and its aftermath under conditions of globalization and transnationalism. Funding this research also supports the education of a graduate student.