ACT UP! is a multi-site ERAMUS+ project aimed at developing performance-based pedagogical tools for higher education. The main goal of the project is to equip our students, ourselves, and our colleagues with means to ‘act up’ in response to the urban injustices, climate emergency and its attendant inequalities. Together with our students we are critically exploring how citizenship can be ‘performed’ in new ways, focusing specifically on urban public space as a site for democratic expression, emergent contestation, and negotiation of common values.
ACT UP! kicked off in January 2025, and will run until mid-2027. During the project, student groups from different disciplines and at different sites co-develop and enact performative urban interventions, attuned to the features and urgencies of their context. This forms the basis of the collaborative development of a set of site-sensitive pedagogical practices which can yet be shared across contexts. Our sites are located in South Africa (Cape Town), Estonia (Viljandi, Narva), Norway (Oslo), and the Netherlands (Groningen). Read more about activities in some of our sites below.
We are a multidisciplinary team of scholars, led by:
- Rike Sitas, African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town (urban studies, public art, performance studies)
- Anneli Saro, Institute of Cultural Research, University of Tartu (theatre studies, impact studies)
- Hedi-Liis Toome, Institute of Cultural Research, University of Tartu (theatre studies, impact studies)
- Marian Counihan, University College Groningen, University of Groningen (philosophy, urban studies)
- Marline Lisette Wilders, University College Groningen, University of Groningen (theatre studies, urban sociology)
- Cecilie Sachs-Olsen, Faculty of Technology, Art and Design, Oslo Metropolitan University (performance studies, cultural geography, urban studies)
- Camilla Eeg-Tverbakk (not pictured), Faculty of Technology, Art and Design, Oslo Metropolitan University (dramaturgy, performance studies)
ACT UP! at UCT includes:
- Rike Sitas, African Centre for Cities
- Nobukhosi Ngwenya, Masters in Sustainable Urban Practice, African Centre for Cities
- Anna Selmeczi, Masters in Urban Studies – Southern Urbanism, African Centre for Cities
- Mwenya Kabwe, Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies
- Nomusa Makhubu, Institute for Creative Arts
- Laura Nkula, Masters in Urban Studies – Southern Urbanism, African Centre for Cities