In this virtual book launch Yana Meerzon and S. E. Wilmer, editors of "The Palgrave Handbook on Theatre and Migration" (Palgrave, 2023) and The Palgrave Studies in Performance and Migration book series, give presentations on the series and the handbook followed by presentations from some of the academics and scholars featured in The Handbook.

"The Palgrave Handbook on Theatre and Migration" provides a wide survey of theatre and performance practices related to the experience of global movements, both in historical and contemporary contexts. Given the largest number of people ever (over 100 million) suffering from forced displacement today, much of the book centres around the topic of refuge and exile and the role of theatre in addressing these issues.

The book is structured in six sections, the first of which is dedicated to the major theoretical concepts related to the field of theatre and migration including exile, refuge, displacement, asylum seeking, colonialism, human rights, globalization, and nomadism. The subsequent sections are devoted to several dozen case studies across various geographies and time periods that highlight, describe and analyse different theatre practices related to migration.

The volume serves as a prestigious reference work to help theatre practitioners, students, scholars, and educators navigate the complex field of theatre and migration. The book launch was held on Wednesday, 18 October 2023, as part of Forced Migration and The Arts.* As part of the event Yana Meerzon gave a presentation on The Handbook while S. E. Wilmer talked about the book series.

The editors were then followed the academics and scholars:
● Azadeh Sharifi (Independent Scholar): 'Postmigrant Theatre and Its Impact on Contemporary German Theatre'
● Daphne Lei (University of California, Irvine), 'Diasporic Trauma, Nativized Innovation, and TechnoIntercultural Predicament: The Story of Jingju in Taiwan'
● Astha Gandhi (Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi), 'Indian Circus: A Melting Pot of Migrant Artists, Performativity, and Race'
● Ambrose Musiyiwa [Co-author: Alison Jeffers] (University of Manchester): 'Theatre, Migration and Activism: The Work of Good Chance Theatre'
● Silvija Jestrovic (Warwick University), 'The Eternal Immigrant and the Aesthetics of Solidarity'
● Kasia Lech (University of Amsterdam): 'Sonless Mothers and Motherless Sons or How Has Polishness Haunted Polish Theatre Artists in Exile?'
● Miranda Fay Thomas (Trinity College Dublin): 'The Stranger’s Case: Exile in Shakespeare'
● Sarit Cofman-Simhon (Kibbutzim College): 'All Our Migrants: Place and Displacement on the Israeli Stage'
● Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei (University of California): 'The Things She Carried: The Vertical Migrations of Lady Rokujō in Japanese Theatre'
● Maria Berlova (Washington, DC): 'German Theatre and August von Kotzebue’s Theatrical Success and Pitfalls in Russia' ● Lisa Peschel (University of York): 'Theatre as Refrain: Representations of Departure from the Terezín/Theresienstadt Ghetto'
● Matthew Causey (Trinity College Dublin): 'Theatre’s Digital Migration', and
● Hala Khamis Nassar (Bethlehem University, Palestine): 'Chronicles of Refugees Foretold'.

NOTES:
[1] Yana Meerzon and S. E. Wilmer. (Eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Theatre and Migration (Palgrave, 2023 https://link.springer.com/book/10.100....
[2] The Palgrave Studies in Performance and Migration https://www.springer.com/series/17066
[3] Forced Migration and The Arts is an online series of monthly conversations that aims to create a space where people with lived experience of forced migration, artists, academics and activists can meet for conversation, to share ideas and explore ways of collaborating with one another. [4] A playlist of videos from some of the conversations we have had so far, as part of Forced Migration and The Arts, is accessible here: https://tinyurl.com/ForcedMigrationAn...