THE HEMISPHERIC INSTITUTE OF PERFORMANCE AND POLITICSis a collaborative, multilingual and interdisciplinary consortium of institutions, artists, scholars and activists throughout the Americas. Working at the intersection of scholarship, artistic expression and politics, the organization explores embodied practice-performance-as a vehicle for the creation of new meaning and the transmission of cultural values, memory and identity. Anchored in its geographical focus on the Americas, the Hemispheric Institute seeks to create spaces and opportunities for cross-cultural collaboration and innovation among researchers and practitioners interested in the relationship between performance and politics in the hemisphere. [Violeta Luna in Performative Meditation on Militarism and Spirituality, Hemispheric Institute Encuentro, New York, 2003. Photo by Marléne Ramïrez-Cancio.] |
DIGITAL PLATFORMOur website is a vast repository of performance-related materials, including videos, images, texts and teaching modules For the past 10 years, the Hemispheric Institute's website has provided a groundbreaking digital platform for collaborative projects. We have a vast collection of invaluable materials related to performance and politics in the Americas that are indispensable for research and teaching in the field. These include a digital video library which makes available in streaming video the complete performance archives of over 25 leading artists and theatre companies; a sizable archive of digitized performances, lectures, interviews, essays, images, artist profiles and other media documenting years of scholarly and artistic collaboration; a series of multimedia case books or "web cuadernos"; and our trilingual, peer-reviewed, online journal, e-misfêrica. Some of the materials are accessible to the public while others are available only to institutional members. |
HEMI CENTERSPlaces where scholars, students and artists can gather for performance research, courses and work groups The Hemispheric Institute has developed two centers, one in New York City and one in Chiapis, Mexico, that offer programming, access to research materials, as well as performance and workshop facilities for members of the Hemispheric Institute. Hemispheric New York features special programs, such as EMERGENYC (www.emergenyc.org), lectures, film series, conferences and performance workshops, some of which are exclusively for members, and others which are open to the public at large. We also have a reference library that houses rare books, journals, video viewing stations and performance ephemera. Francisca Oseguera Cruz and Isabel Juarez Espinosa in FOMMA's La Bruja Monja. Centro Hemisferico inauguration, August 2008. Photo by Marlene Ramirez-Cancio. |
HEMI CENTERSPlaces where scholars, students and artists can gather for performance research, courses and work groups Centro Hemisfèrico/FOMMA is a performance and research center developed in conjunction with Fortaleza de la Mujer Maya (FOMMA), a Mayan women's theatre collective based in San Cristôbal de las Casas, Mexico. Featuring a state-of-the-art digital studio and a fully outfitted theatre space, the center's mission is to promote, showcase and archive local performance practices and develop research, artistic creation and cultural programming with and for local, national and international communities. Centro Hemisférico is available to institutional members for work group meetings, performance workshops, conferences and academic courses. |
ENCUENTROSPart academic conference, part performance festival, these events bring together 500 people from the Americas Every two years, we host an Encuentro-a ten-day conference/festival-in a different site in the Americas. Fostering experimentation, dialogue, and collaboration, each Encuentro brings together approximately 500 artists, scholars, activists and students to take part in a program of lectures, performances, installations, roundtable discussions, exhibits, video screenings, work groups and hands-on performance workshops. Comprehensive documentation of Encuentros is available on our website. Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver in Split Britches' RetroPerspective/It's a Small House and We've Lived in it, Always. Hemi Encuentro in Buenos Aires, 2007. Photo by Julio Pantoja. |
COURSESOffered exclusively for member institutions, these team-taught courses share a syllabus and encourage cross-institutional student collaboration One of the central goals of the Institute is to create new knowledge and to inform new ways of thinking about knowledge. The Institute hosts team-taught seminars that combine the face-to-face quality of traditional classrooms with online collaboration, enabling both undergraduate and graduate students throughout the Americas to communicate and work together. Areas of teaching are developed collaboratively and have followed a chronological and thematic sequence, exploring shared topics in the historical trajectory of the Americas over the last five centuries: Conquest, Colonialism, Nationalism and Globalization. Students and faculty of the Performance and Cultural Politics in Peru course. Casa Yuyachkani, Lima, Peru, summer 2007. |
COURSESOffered exclusively for member institutions, these team-taught courses share a syllabus and encourage cross-institutional student collaboration The Institute has offered related courses in Trauma, Memory and Performance; Performance and Activism; Latin American Theatre and Performance; Performance and/of Indigeneity; Theories of Spectatorship; and Terror, Performance and Slavery, among others. We also offer an annual intensive course in Lima, taught by major scholars in the field, and co-taught by Peru's foremost theatre collective, Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani. Students from member universities have priority for enrollment in the course, which they can take for credit as an Independent Study at their home institution. All course materials- syllabi, readings, forums-are available only to member institutions. Our complete course list may be found at: |
RESEARCHMembers of the Hemispheric Institute work together to expand the research field of performance studies in the Americas Hemispheric Institute members work together in multiple research projects. Through courses, field research, publications and work groups, faculty and students develop new areas of inquiry by focusing on embodied practices as vital acts of transfer. We explore how various systems of transmission-the written, the performed, the digital-work together to produce more complex objects of analysis. Work groups meet at our Encuentros. They are hosted by member institutions, and may also gather for week-long residencies at the Centro Hemisférico in San Cristóbal de las Casas. The Hemispheric Institute and its institutional members are committed to supporting innovative research that will make significant contributions to the field and debates of performance studies and beyond. |
PUBLICATIONSWe explore a range of publications, including print media, borndigital projects and hybrid models The Hemispheric Institute's focus on embodied practice requires innovative methodologies for dissemination. We are actively exploring a range of publications that span from traditional print media, to born-digital projects and hybrid models. The Institute has sponsored single-author and edited volumes, such as Performing Religion in the Americas: Media, Politics and Devotional Practices of the 21st Century (Sea Gull), the result of a work group; and Cuerpos Políticos, a photography book developed out of an Encuentro exhibit. We also support publications that break new ground, such as Teorías de Performance (Fondo de Cultura Económica), the first performance studies reader in Spanish. Cover image of e-misferica issue 4.2 Body Matters/Corpografias, NOvember 2007. (In photo: Violeta Luna of Secos y Mojados, photo by Julio Pantoja.) |
PUBLICATIONSWe explore a range of publications, including print media, borndigital projects and hybrid models Additionally, we are experimenting with various hybrid publication formats. Books such as Holy Terrors: Latin American Women Perform (Duke UP) and Stages of Conflict: A Critical Anthology of Latin American Theater and Performance (Michigan UP), combine a traditional print format with an online companion that makes a variety of digital resources available to readers. Born-digital projects include 'web cuadernos,' curated online casebooks devoted to specific artists, collectives or themes that contain photos, videos, texts, hyperlinks, bibliographies and audio recordings. e-misférica is the Institute's flagship publication. This online, biannual journal is trilingual and features peer-reviewed essays, multimedia presentations, activist profiles, and film, performance and book reviews. |
ARCHIVESPhysical archives preserve performance materials for future generations Housed in NYU's Tamiment Library, the Archive of the Hemispheric Institute includes books, slides, videos, posters, drawings and other fragile documents that have been donated by affiliated artists and scholars in order to assure their preservation for future generations. Cognizant that materials, whenever possible, should remain with the communities that produce them, the Hemispheric Institute only accepts materials that cannot be safely preserved in their communities or countries of origin. The Hemispheric New York reference library makes available videos, rare books, newspaper articles, photographs, posters, program notes and other performance materials from throughout the Americas. These noncirculating materials are available to members of the Hemispheric Institute. Jesusa Rodriguez as Coaticue, the Aztec mother of the gods, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, November 2004. Photo by Lorie Novak. |
VIDEO LIBRARYHIDVL is the world's first digital video library on performance and politics in the Americas In partnership with NYU Libraries, and with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, HIDVL is the world's first digital video library on performance and politics in the Americas. With over five hundred hours of digital video to date and extensive supporting materials in three languages, this permanent collection is publicly accessible through the Institute's website. The digital library includes performance archives of artists including Guillermo Gômez-Peña, Carmelita Tropicana, Danny Hoch, Richard Schechner, and Rosa Luisa Màrquez, and of renown theatre and performance companies including Split Britches (USA), El Teatro Campesino (USA), Teatro Experimental de Cali (Colombia), Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani (Peru), CADA (Chile), Teatro La Candelaria (Colombia), Malayerba (Ecuador), Teatro Buendîa (Cuba), and Catalinas Sur (Argentina). Additionally, we house the collections of important cultural institutions such as El Hàbito and the American Indian Community House. HIDVL may be viewed at: http://hidvl.nyu.edu |
BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIPStudents and faculty from member institutions participate in a vibrant network of universities and cultural centers located throughout the Americas. Whether at one of our Encuentros or courses, or through the activities supported by our digital platform, the Institute enables crosscultural learning and collaborative research across disciplines, institutions and national borders. Membership in the Institute provides access to a wealth of primary and secondary research materials for students and faculty and expands both on-campus and international course offerings. Membership also offers opportunities for specialized faculty development and mentorship through its network of scholars, and specialized internships either at Hemispheric New York, or at Centro Hemisférico at FOMMA in Chiapas, Mexico. Member institutions are encouraged to take advantage of opportunities to teamteach Institute courses and to make use of our facilities at New York University and at Centro Hemisférico at FOMMA. |
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SPONSORSThe Hemispheric Institute is a university-wide research initiative administrated by the Office of the Provost at New York University. It continues to receive institutional support from the Department of Performance Studies, the Tisch School of the Arts, the Faculty of Arts and Science, and the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, NYU Libraries, the NYU Humanities Council, the Office of the Dean of Global Activities, the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, and the Office of Information Technology Services. Since its inception, the Institute has received generous funding from the Ford Foundation, first from its Education, Knowledge and Religion division and later from its program on Media, Arts and Culture. The Institute has also received support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The Institute receives invaluable support from its member institutions in the United States, Canada and Latin America, and from the thousands of scholars, students, artists and activists that have made its work possible since 1999. |
DONATEThe Hemispheric Institute accepts tax-deductible donations to support core operations and specific programs (EMERGENYC, Hemi New York, Centro Hemisférico in FOMMA, HIDVL). We are also building a program of named fellowships to support the work of artists at our Encuentros as well as artist residencies and visiting scholars at our centers in New York and San Cristóbal de las Casas. |
