The arts in its many forms play many important roles in society. They allow us to discover, reinvent, and interrogate our imagined and real concepts of society, community and the individual. They are also a vehicle for us to celebrate, present, and critique our past, our present, and our future.

The arts emanate from the society of which they are a part, and as such they can be a reflection of that society and its many layers, reflecting differently as we move from generation to generation, from gender to gender, from one age group to another, through different socioeconomic groups, across different cultures, nationalities and languages, through different historical and current political and environmental crises and, in more recent times, across different mediums of delivery.

The practice of art also allows the artist to question our representations and reflections of our self in many - sometimes strident, sometimes subtle - different ways. Thus, although the arts are shaped in many ways by the societies from which they emanate, the arts are also a force in shaping society.

As we approach the end of the second decade of the third millennium, new and old forces are beginning to shape our societies in different ways, including inter alia changes in the ways we access news and other media, access to and various levels of education among the population in general, levels of income and disparities in levels of income, how we interpret political movements at local, national, and geopolitical levels, and the impact of technological advances on how we communicate, how we work, the number and types of jobs available, and the ability of government, businesses, and other organizations to gain access to our life preferences, patterns, and personal information. These challenges are contributing to a perceived or real crisis regarding democracy in contemporary society.

How does the Arts engage these changes? How has the practice of Art and the role of the Arts in Society been changed by these forces? How do the Arts interpret these changes? What normative assumptions exist in the Arts about what democracy is or should be, and of what the role of the Arts as a force in democracy should be?

This provides the scope for the 2020 Arts in Society Conference, which invites submissions from artists and academics across all artistic and academic disciplines which will contribute to the discourse on how the practices of art and our ways of interpreting art have shaped and is shaping society and how we present, critique, and engage with the forces defining our current understanding of the nature of and the challenges facing the future of democracy as a core organising principle of society.

Ecological and Non-Ecological Conflict in Fiction: The Role of Narrative Art in Comprehending Violence

• John Pauley, Professor, Philosophy, Simpson College, United States

Playing Socio-Political Games: Games as a Medium for Social Art

• Alba García Martínez, PhD Researcher, Design and Visual Art, University of Barcelona, Spain

Unique Ways of Prototyping

• Thomas Girard, Graduate Research Assistant, Graduate Liberal Studies, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada

Art Activism in European Politics: The Role of the Arts in Brexit

• Marie Rosenkranz, Research Assistant, Sociology and Cultural Sociology, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany

The Role of Emerging Media Arts During a Crisis of Democracy: Considering the Case of Austrian Radio Theater in the Early 20th Century

• John Kellogg, Senior Lecturer, Foreign Language and Literature, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
• John Pavlik, Professor, Journalism and Media Studies, Rutgers University, United States

Unmasking Fascism and Promoting Anti-fascism with Films

• Claudia Springer, Associate Professor, English Department, Framingham State University, Massachusetts, United States

The Challenges of Democracy: Onstage and Beyond: Drama and Democracy

• Janet Rubin, Communication and Theatre, Eastern Florida State College, Cocoa, Florida, Florida, United States
• Sharon Kline, Eastern Florida State College, Cocoa, Florida, Florida, United States
• Jeanine Henry, Director, Theatre Arts, Eastern Florida State College, Cocoa, Florida, Florida, United States

The Semiotics of Urgency: Socio-Political Issues in the Works of Four Atlanta Photographers

• Laurent Ditmann, Associate Dean and Assistant Professor of French, Georgia State University, Perimeter College, Newton Campus, United States

Revolution in Fairyland: Musical Theatre about Why We Need Democracy

• Katherine Phelps, Director, Friends Institute, Australia

Yoni ki Baat: Feminist Performance, Diversity, and Emancipatory Potential

• Ayeshah Emon, Teaching Fellow, Trinity College Dublin, University of Dublin, Ireland
• Christine Garlough, Professor, Department of Gender and Women's Studies and Interdisciplinary Theater Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, United States

Fully Awake - Art Education as a Catalyst for Democracy

• Siu Challons-Lipton, Executive Director, Department of Art, Design and Music, Queens University of Charlotte, North Carolina, United States

Democratizing Performance and Embodying Presence at the Pop-up Globe Theatre in Auckland

• Vanessa Byrnes, Head of School, Creative Industries, Unitec: Auckland, New Zealand

Art as Refuge from Sociopolitical Turmoil: Clay Art Therapy for Secondary School Students in Combating Emotional Distress

• Joshua Kin-Man Nan, Assistant Professor, Social Work, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

The Democratic Praxis of Art in Odd Places

• Michael Kilburn, Professor, Politics and International Studies, Endicott College, United States

Making With Place

• Priya (Pree) Rehal, Artist Researcher Sketch Working Arts Toronto Canada

• Ammarah Syed, Artist Researcher Sketch Working Arts Toronto Canada

• Charlotte Lombardo, PhD candidate Faculty of Environmental Studies York University Toronto Canada

• Phyllis (Novak) Nowakowski, MES candidate Faculty of Environmental Studies York University Toronto Canada

The Challenges of Democracy: Onstage and Beyond: Drama and Democracy

• Janet Rubin, Communication and Theatre, Eastern Florida State College, Cocoa, Florida, United States
• Sharon Kline, Eastern Florida State College, Cocoa, Florida, United States
• Jeanine Henry, Director, Theatre Arts, Eastern Florida State College, Cocoa, Florida, United States

The Power of War Photography: Impact, Censorship, Crisis

• Edith Georgi, Graduate Student, Department of Religious Studies, Florida International University, United States

Please comment and discuss below.

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