UW–Madison’s Douglas Rosenberg, a professor in the School of Education’s Art Department, wrote the forward for the forthcoming book, “Dance, Technology, and Social Justice: Individual and Collective Emancipation Through Embodied Techniques,” by Kaustavi Sarkar.
The book is scheduled to be published on April 24 by McFarland, a leading independent publisher of academic and general-interest nonfiction books.
According to a preview from the publisher, “Dance, Technology, and Social Justice” theorizes dance technique as the Greek techne translated as art, and shows how movement can inspire epistemic, philosophical, and cultural conversations in technology studies. Combining dance studies, religious studies, and technology studies, it argues that dance can be a technology of social justice bringing equanimity, liberation, and resistance. It focuses on the eastern Indian art form Odissi and applied experimentations with motion capture technology, virtual reality gaming, and Arduino. It specifically examines the work of Ananya Dance Theatre, a Minnesota-based contemporary Indian dance company that deconstructs Odissi towards social justice activism.
The book is currently available for pre-order.