Sophie Pfaff
associated Ph.D. student (Scholarship holder 10/2010-12/2014)
1st Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Reinhold Sackmann
2nd Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Monika Wohlrab-Sahr (Leipzig University)
Mentor: Dr. James M. Thompson
Overview
Dealing with biographical uncertainty – The case of internationally active dancers
Performing on stage, travelling the world – having made your way as an internationally active dancer is often seen as having gotten the job of one’s dream. But what about the other side of the coin? Strong competition, short-term and project based employments, high mobility, flexibility, and an extreme dependency on the body as an existential capital – these are just some characteristics of a dancer’s career, which lead to the assumption that life courses of internationally active dancers also dispose of high degree of uncertainty that has to be dealt with.
The research project starts from this duality and asks about the structures of meaning and relevance of the actors themselves. How do internationally active dancers themselves perceive their work and life? Do they regard their biographies, single biographical phases or situations as uncertain? If yes, do they construct this uncertainty in relation to a kind of standardized life course? How do they further deal with these uncertainties, and which forms of compensation can be reconstructed from their biographical narrations? And if uncertainty is not a relevant category for them, which other patterns of meaning can then be detected in their biographies? In order to answer these questions approximately 15 autobiographical narrative interviews are conducted with internationally active dancers (ballet, contemporary dance and musical) in Germany and the Netherlands. The data is then analyzed with a method mix of Grounded Theory and Objective Hermeneutics.
In the light of newer research about the actual developments in the organization of work – see for instance Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello’s analysis of network society or discussions around the topics of individualization and blurring of boundaries of work – the professional group of dancers or artists in general gains new attention. Artists are seen as a prototype for the actual trend of the project-based, mobile and flexible worker, which has become also an imperative in many other professional fields. Thus, when it comes to the question of how uncertainties deriving from such working conditions are dealt with biographically, a deeper look at the artists’ ways of dealing with uncertainties promises insights in social processes also relevant for other professional groups.
Curriculum Vitae
Academic education
| since 10/2010 | PhD-scholarship holder of the Graduate School "Society and Culture in Motion", Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg |
| 09/2008 | Magistra Artium in Cultural Studies and Hispanistics, University of Leipzig, M.A. thesis: “Chilean Migrants in the GDR/East Germany. A biographical perspective”, rewarded as the best M.A. thesis in Cultural Sociology in this year |
| 10/2003-06/2004 | Exchange student at the Université de Provence Aix-Marseille I (France), departments Cultural Education, Sociology and Hispanistics |
Work experience
| 01/2009-09/2010 | Project coordinator at the non-profit organisation „Leipzig Dance Theatre“, Leipzig (Production of dance theatre plays, event management of the performances of the plays, project management in the field of cultural education) |
| Winter term 2009/2010 | Teaching assignment at the Department of Cultural Studies at the University of Leipzig (Seminar „Introduction into cultural sociology“, Chair: Prof. Dr. Monika Wohlrab-Sahr) |
| 09/2007-02/2008 | Student research assistant at the „Centre of Advanced Studies“ at the University of Leipzig (Research Area: Latin American History, Dr. Jochen Meissner) |
Conference presentations
- „Das Subjekt ist tot. Es lebe das Subjekt! Reproduktion und Transformation des Ungewissheitsdiskurses in narrativen Interviews mit Tänzerinnen und Tänzern.“, Talk during the Annual Meeting of the Biography Section of the German Association of Sociology (DGS) “Biography and Discourse”, University of Kassel, 17th/18th of January 2013.
- „Traumberuf Tänzer/in!? Umgang mit sozialer Unsicherheit in Biografien von Tänzerinnen und Tänzern“, Talk during the „2. Rhein-Ruhr Promovendensymposiums `Arbeit und Soziale Sicherheit´“, University Essen-Duisburg, 13th/14th of March 2014.
Publications
Pfaff, Sophie: Rezension zu Gilles Renout, Wissen in Arbeit und Bewegung. Aktuelle Strategien von „LebenskünstlerInnen“ in Kreativarbeit und zeitgenössischem Tanz. Reihe: Theorie und Praxis der Diskursforschung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2012. In: Arbeitstitel – Forum für Leipziger Promovierende Bd. 5, Heft 1 (2013). S. 38–43. http://wissens-werk.de/index.php/arbeitstitel/article/viewFile/152/184
Languages
German – Native speaker
Spanish – C1
English – B2
French – B2
Dutch – A2
Latin – Latinum (1998)