A Conversation with Dr. Toni Shapiro-Phim

Date and Time: Aug 11, 2022 | 2:00-3:30pm HST

Where: Moore Hall 319 (Tokioka Room)
RSVP via tinyurl [new window]

NOTE: Seats are limited, please R.S.V.P by Monday August 8th. First come, first served!

This is an in-person event and we have limited attendance on a first come first served basis.

Event Description

How can dance inform social justice efforts? Join us for an intimate conversation with Dr. Toni Shapiro-Phim, whose research centers on dance in relation to the telling of stories, the remembering of atrocities, the embodiment of the pain and cruelty of others, and the imagining of possibilities. Shapiro-Phim’s research focuses on, among other things, how performing arts can contribute to social justice, and how dancers and performers push boundaries beyond the confines of historical documentation, paying attention to artistic techniques, emotions, and subjectivity.

We invite Southeast Asia enthusiasts and graduate students from social science, humanities, and performing arts who want to learn more about Dr. Shapiro-Phim’s work, as well as about researching social justice through performing arts.

About Toni Shapiro-Phim

Toni Shapiro-Phim is Co-Director of the Center’s Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts, and Associate Professor of Creativity, the Arts, and Social Transformation (CAST) at Brandeis University.

Dr. Shapiro-Phim is a cultural anthropologist and dance ethnologist whose research, writing, community work and teaching focus on the history and cultural contexts of the arts in discrete regions of the world, particularly in relation to violence, genocide, migration and refugees, conflict transformation, and gender concerns.

Dr. Shapiro-Phim’s documentary film Because of the War shares the stories of four women: mothers, refugees, immigrants, singers, dancers and survivors of Liberia’s civil wars. The movie highlights ways in which these superstar recording artists harness the potency of their arts to call for an end to violence at home in West Africa and in exile in North America.