Chair

Zeca Ligiero Coelho, Universidad Federal de Rio de Janeiro
Zeca Ligiero is the founder and coordinator of NEPPA at UNIRIO, Brazil. He is a theater director, artist, writer, and director of theater at UNIRIO where he has taught since 1989.  He is the author of the essay "Candomblé is a religio-life-at" published in the book Divine Inspiration by New Mexico University Press. He is also the author of Iniciação ao Candomblé (Initiation to the Candomblé), Umbanda: Paz, liberdade e cura (umbanda: Peace, freedom and healing) and Carmen Miranda: An Africa-Brazilian Paradox (to be released soon). An expert in both Brazilian and Afro-Indigenous performance studies, he received his Doctorate in Performance Studies from NYU>

Senior scholars

Elizabeth McAlister, Wesleyan University
Daniel Dawson, Scholar in Residence, DV Republic, USA
Ausonia Bernardes Monteiro, UNI Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Members

Amiel Melnick, Columbia University
Anais Blondet, PUCP, Peru
André Porfiro, Uni Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Crystal Kurzen, Ohio State University
Denise Zenicola, NEPAA, Brazil
Elizabeth Nordt, Stanford University, USA
Eloisa Brantes Mendes, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil
Erin Taylor-George, University of Washington
Julia Grob, USA
Karen Williams, NYU
Lais Monteiro, Uni Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Letitia Guillory, Performance Studies, NYU
Marcos Antônio Alexandre, Uni Federal Minas Gerais, Brazil
Maya Talmon-Chvaicer, Israel
Mirangela Buggs, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Vivian Martínez Tabares, Casa de las Américas, Cuba