Moderator

Gisela Cánepa Koch, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú

Panelists

Joseph Roach Yale University, “Ghost Notes: Jazz Divinity”
Liza McAlister Wesleyan University, "Zonbi spirits and zombified bodies in Haitian Rara and Vodou arts"
Luis Millones Universidad de San Marcos (Peru), “Hechizos de amor: magia y poder en la costa norte del Perú”
Daniel Dawson “The Universe in a Pot: Palo Mayombe in Cuba”

Biographies

Joseph Roach is Charles C. and Dorathea S. Dilley Professor of Theater and English at Yale University. Roach has chaired the Department of Performing Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, the Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre at Northwestern University, and the Department of Performance Studies at NYU. His books and articles include Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic Performance (Columbia, 1996), which won the James Russell Lowell Prize from MLA and the Calloway Prize from NYU, The Player's Passion: Studies in the Science of Acting (Michigan, 1993), which won the Barnard Hewitt Award in Theatre History, and essays in Theatre Journal, Theatre Survey, The Drama Review, Theatre History Studies, Discourse, Theater, Text and Performance Quarterly, and others.

Elizabeth McAlister is Assistant Professor of Religion and Latin American Studies at Wesleyan University. Her research focuses on Afro-Haitian religious culture and transnational migration. She is the author of Rara! Vodou, Power and Performance in Haiti and its Diaspora. She produced the audio CD called "Rhythms of Rapture: Sacred Musics of Haitian Vodou" on Smithsonian Folkways.

Luis Millones is Professor Emeritus of Universidad Nacional San Cristóbal de Huamanga (Ayacucho, Perú) and Professor of the Literature Doctorate program of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. He has been Visiting Professor at the University of Texas, Austin, Stanford, Harvard and Princeton. He has published several works on Andean religions and ethnicity. He is the author of Dioses Familiares: Festivales Populares en el Perú Contemporáneo (Familiar Gods: Popular Festival in Contemporary Peru); Perú: el Legado de la Historia (Peru: the Legacy of History) and Dioses y Demonios del Cuzco (Gods and Devils of Cuzco).

C. Daniel Dawson has worked as a photographer, filmmaker, curator, arts administrator, consultant and scholar. He has served as Curator of Photography, Film and Video at the Studio Museum in Harlem (NYC), Director of Special Projects at the Caribbean Cultural Center (NYC) and Curatorial Consultant and Director of Education at the Museum for African Art (NYC). As a photographer, he has shown in over 25 exhibitions. Prof. Dawson has also been associated with many prize-winning films including Head and Heart by James Mannas and Capoeiras of Brazil by Warrington Hudlin.