Challenging the Boundaries of Bodies conference will convene at the Universidade Estadual do Paraná in Curitiba, Brazil between June 6^th and June 8^th, 2024, and bring together historians, theorists, and creative practitioners from a variety of performance related art forms whose research centers around issues of the body and its politics. This initiative will take the form of a three-day conference with four panels that address notions of the conceptualized, sounding, archived, and choreographed “body” in performance and a keynote address by Professor Barra Costa entitled, Imagining the Past and Remembering the Future: Afro-Brazilian Philosophies. On the third day of the gathering, there will be an afternoon of performances by artists from Columbus and Curitiba at the Casa Hoffman. By closing the conference with performances, participants will be encouraged to carry the conference discourse forward into the ground of practice. 

Challenging the Boundaries of Bodies will be co-hosted by faculty and graduate students in the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Artes and the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Artes Visuais at Universidade Estadual do Paraná. This conference is being funded through The Global Gateways Initiative Grant Program at the Ohio State University with additional support from The Greater Columbus Sister Cities International who are both located in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Our collaboration will serve to deepen the previously established cultural connections between the city of Columbus and its sister city of Curitiba, Brazil and lay the groundwork for establishing a new memorandum of understanding between The Ohio State University and the Universidade Estadual do Paraná.

The Challenging the Boundaries of Bodies conference will be considered an “advanced seminar” within UNESPAR/PPGARTES and most likely the UNESPAR/PPGAV masters programs.

Principle Investigator (PI):

• Alison Crocetta, Primary Investigator (PI), Associate Professor, Department of Art, The Ohio State University

Co-Investigator (Co-I):

• Isis Barra Costa, PhD, Assistant Professor in Contemporary Brazilian Cultural and Literary Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Organizers/Collaborators in Brazil:

• Amabilis de Jesus, PhD and Professor at Programa de Mestrado em Artes - Universidade Estadual do Paraná - FAP

• Fernando Cesar Ribeiro, Curator, Performance Artist, MA in Arts (PPGARTES/UNESPAR)

Conference Sponsors:

• The Brazil Gateway, Office of International Affairs at The Ohio State University

• Office of International Affairs at The Ohio State University

• Greater Columbus Sister Cities International, Columbus, Ohio

• Programa de Pós-Graduação em Artes at Universidade Estadual do Paraná

• Programa de Pós-Graduação em Artes Visuais at Universidade Estadual do Paraná

Simultaneous Translation Services:

• AB traduções, Curitiba, Brazil

Website Translation (except participants short bios):

• Izis Dellatre Bonfim Tomass

Website Development

• Fernando Cesar Ribeiro

Conference Partners:

• Casa Hoffmann,  Curitiba, Brazil

• p.ARTE - Performance art platform, Curitiba, Brazil

• ΦComov, Curitiba, Brazil

• GP Dança, Curitiba, Brazil

Conference Volunteers: