Poetry Off the Page, Around the Globe: here’s what happened
Conference organising team
On 13 and 14 June 2025, the research project Poetry Off the Page (ERC/FWF) hosted the final conference of its five-year programme.
Titled “Poetry Off the Page, Around the Globe: Advances in Poetry Performance Research” (PoPAG), the two-day event was held at Literaturhaus Wien and the University of Vienna’s Department of English and American Studies and brought together scholars and practitioners to explore contemporary poetry performance and spoken word poetry in a global context.
Panel 1 (©Tsepang Malephane)
PoPAG aimed to create an international forum for new research in the growing field of poetry performance studies. Over the course of two days, 27 presenters from 18 countries contributed to a vibrant dialogue about the forms, politics, and aesthetics of spoken word.
Panel 2 (©Tsepang Malephane)
The highlight of the conference were two keynote lectures by Cornelia Gräbner (UK) and Shantanu Anand (IN).
An online gallery featured 16 additional academic contributions in multimedia formats (poster, video, blog, and audio).
Conference audience (©Tsepang Malephane)
Evening MCs Shefali Banerji and Claire Palzer (©Lajta-Novak)
The evening program included live performances, headlined by Anand (IN), Liz Breslin (NZ), Raphael d’Abdon (ZA), and Katharina Wenty (AT), as well as an open mic session.
Evening Performers (©Lajta-Novak)
For a detailed report by Rachel Bolle-Debessay and Shefali Banerji, please visit our conference website https://popconf2025.univie.ac.at/.