Professor Nádia Meinerz, from the Ufal Institute of Social Sciences, was one of the speakers at the event. Eugenic Legacy in Latin America, sponsored by the University of California. She participated in Panel on Brazilian Eugenics Legacy and Disability Activism and presented a paper co-authored with Professor Pamela Block, Western University, Canada.
Entitled Disability Activism and Art, the work is part of his postdoctoral activities at Western University and is the result of the Portraits Defiças project, which has a partnership with Ateliê Ambrosina, from Maceió.
The event was held online on October 12 and 13 with the aim of addressing how eugenics and its ramifications have developed in different national and regional contexts across Latin America. The seminar brought together diverse scholars, particularly from the field of social history, and highlighted the work of activists, scholars and artists fighting for justice for those who have been targeted by such ideas. and eugenics practices.
The panel program where Professor Nádia presented her work focused on disability activism and the role of art in resisting and countering the persistence of eugenics.
“Our contribution was to think of the co-creation of sound and visual portraits as a social technology aimed at transforming sensitivity to disability. We defend an intersectional anti-eugenics imaginary, capable of pursuing futures in which “damage”, “sequelae”, “pain”, “deviations” are recognized as a collective responsibility, as part of the present and not as remnants of a history that we must fight and overcome”, underlined Nádia.
About the project and achievements
The work of professors Nádia Meinerz and Pamela Block is the result of the national project Portraits of Brazil with a disability, which began in September 2021, with the mobilization and selection of 44 co-creators who presented duo proposals, made with or by a disability. The project selected duos to co-create portraits and podcast episodes across the country.
Alagoas production is included in the virtual exhibition gallery at Defiças Portraits website and recently the project released a seven-minute video that summarizes the whole story and has English and Portuguese versions, subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, plus an audio description.
In addition to the gallery of illustrations, drawings, paintings, photographs, Gifart and other productions that portray people with disabilities in new and progressive ways in Brazil, the site publishes podcasts with free themes to broadcast independent narratives of disability and ethnographic reports related to disability. . . The idea is to bring interviews and debates about lived experiences around rights of inclusion, politics and justice, family, care, sexuality and activist networks in Brazil.
In November, the project will have a face-to-face exhibition in Canada and will include productions from Alagoas which have the artistic support of Ateliê Ambrosina.
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