Visiting Scholars
Visiting scholars come to NYU Performance Studies from all over the world to conduct independent research with our faculty members. During their residencies, visiting scholars give informal talks on their research, audit graduate courses, and meet with faculty to receive feedback on their research. If you are interested in becoming a visiting scholar with the department, please complete the application at the following link.
Requirements & Common Requests:
- Please note that space is limited and we can only host up to four scholars a year, and we only accept applicants who have recieved their Ph.D.
- Applicants must confirm a faculty sponsor before applying. Faculty must be in residence for the entire visitation period, not on any sort of leave or sabbatical
- Applications must be submitted a minimum of 6 months prior to the requested period of time.
- Complete applications including the PDF linked above, a CV, an a research statement should be emailed to the Department Administrator, Nicole Cusick.
- Initial applications cannot exceed a one year window of visitation, extensions can be granted but the department cannot support more than one year in an initial application.
- PS faculty can only support one scholar per academic year.
- Applicants looking to secure grant/funding/Fulbright before formally applying can request a letter from the PS Department Administrator confirming that the Department of Performance Studies supports their visiting scholar application, but they can NOT provide documentation/guarantee the appointment without the formal application being approved.
- Applicants are responsible to find their own housing accommodations. NYU does not provide or aid visiting scholars in securing housing.
2024-2025 Visiting Scholars
Ricardo Aleixo
Ricardo Aleixo is a poet, writer, visual artist, sound designer and researcher of Literature, other arts and media. He has published 22 books. Aleixo's works mix poetry, fictional prose, philosophy, ethnopoetics, anthropology, history, music, radio art, visual arts, video, dance, theater, performance and urban studies. Ricardo Aleixo has performed in almost all Brazilian states and in the following countries: Argentina, Germany, Portugal, USA, Spain, Mexico, France, Switzerland and Angola. He participates in the permanent exhibition 'Rua da Língua' (Portuguese Language Museum/SP). As a visual artist, he organized the solo exhibitions 'Objetos suspeitos' (Belo Horizonte, Mariana and Rio de Janeiro, 1999), ‘reProspectiva’ (Belo Horizonte, 2015) and ‘obracabada’ (Belo Horizonte, 2024), and participated in numerous collective exhibitions, such as 'A Corda Mor' (Coimbra, Portugal, 2024) and 'Anozero`24 – The Phantom of Liberty' (Coimbra, 2024), 'Carolina Maria de Jesus – Um Brasil Para os Brasileiros' (São Paulo, Sorocaba and Rio de Janeiro, 2021/2022) and 'Textos y Visualidades' (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2019). Ricardo Aleixo presented, at the 35th International Biennial of São Paulo, the 'Dendorí' performance cycle. Photo Credit: Natália Alves
Natália Alves
Natália Alves is an intermedia artist, curator, and researcher in urban studies. She is a Fulbright Fellow and Visiting Scholar in Performance Studies at New York University. Her artistic project combines creative fields such as sound art, photography, and performance. In a duo with intermedia artist, poet, and researcher Ricardo Aleixo, she has co-authored numerous audio and video works, as well as performances in Barcelona, Boston, and New York, such as 'Fish Don’t Hold Anyone’s Hand', one of the highlights of the official program of the 35th São Paulo Biennial. As a doctoral candidate at the Institute for Research in Urban and Regional Planning at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), she researches how racially shaped the urban transformations in Brazilian cities in the post-abolition. Natália Alves also holds a master’s degree in architecture and urbanism from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), where she researched the relationship between gender and race in the struggle for the right to a city in Brazil. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Science from UFMG.
Luciana Lyra
Luciana Lyra is an actress, director, playwright, writer and professor in the area of Performing Arts, in Brazil. Permanent professor at the Postgraduate Program in Arts (PPGArtes), at the Institute of Arts, at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (ART/UERJ). Associate Professor at the Department of Art and Popular Culture Teaching at the same university. Visiting Scholar, at the Tisch School of the Arts - Performance Arts, New York University (NYU). Procientist (Productivity Fellow) from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). Scholarship holder in the Our State Scientist Program (CNE-2023), for researchers with recognized leadership in their field, promoted by the Rio de Janeiro State Research Support Foundation (FAPERJ), APQ1 researcher also by Faperj. Post-doctorate at the Postgraduate Program in Performing Arts at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN Scholarship - PNPD/CAPES). Post-doctorate in Anthropology from the University of São Paulo (FFLCH/USP - FAPESP Scholarship), she also has a Master's and PhD in Performing Arts from the State University of Campinas (IA/UNICAMP-SP), FAPESP Scholarship. He has a lato sensu postgraduate degree (Specialization) in Dramaturgy: Cinema, Theater and Television from ESACH and a lato sensu postgraduate degree (Specialization) in Teaching History of Arts and Religions from the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE). Graduated in Performing Arts from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), graduated in Law from the Catholic University of Pernambuco (UNICAP-PE) and graduated in the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education from Feldenkrais International Training. She is a member of the research groups: 'Anthropology, Performance and Drama' (NAPEDRA-USP) and 'Image, myth and imaginary in the performing arts' (ÍMAN-UFG), and lead researcher of the research and extension group entitled 'MOTIM - Cartographies of Myths, Rites and Feminists in the Arts' (UERJ/CNPq) and is the co-creator of ENCONTROS ARCANOS, an annual academic-artistic event dedicated to the study of the imaginary and its interfaces with the performing arts, anthropology and depth psychology. She is co-coordinator of the GT Cena Mulher and the GT Mito, Imagem e Cena, of the Brazilian Association for Research and Postgraduate Studies in Performing Arts (ABRACE). He works at the theater company OS FOFOS ENCENAM, from Cooperativa de Teatro, in São Paulo and coordinates his own research studio UNALUNA - PESQUISA E CRIAÇÃO EM ARTE.
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Mariah Miguel
Mariah Miguel is a performer, theater director and professor. She is an artist-researcher in the Arts of the Scene Program at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where she received a doctoral exchange scholarship (PDSE-CAPES), and also a member of the Experimental Performance Nucleus (NEP - UFRJ) - coordinated by professors Adriana Schneider (PHD Advisor) and Eleonora Fabião; and the Você e Eu Collective - in partnership with Gabriel Morais. miguel intends to share the experience of more than a decade of learning and collaboration with performer and performance theorist Eleonora Fabião. Her scholarly interests include: Performance Art; Critical Performative Pedagogy; Critical Writing; Performative Writing; Performative Historiography; Friendship among bodies that are human and other-than-human. As a Visiting Scholar in Performance Studies at NYU, miguel will make conversations and learn from the body what the streets of New York teach about vibration, experimentation, friendship and city-creation, as well as visiting the archives created by Fabião during the period in which the Brazilian artist did her master's and doctorate in the same department.