Acting Together ─ Performance and the Creative Transformation of Conflict: Resistance and Reconciliation in Regions of Violence

Cynthia Cohen is director of the program in Peacebuilding and the Arts at the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University. In that role, she leads research and action partnerships, teaches at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and leads professional development workshops and institutes for practitioners. She is principal investigator in an on-going inquiry into Creative Approaches to Coexistence and Reconciliation and writes on the ethical and aesthetic dimensions of reconciliation. Since 2005, Cohen has worked in collaboration with Theatre Without Borders on Acting Together on the World Stage, a project that is culminating in an anthology, documentary, website and toolkit for practitioners. Cohen was the founding director of the Oral History Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has facilitated coexistence efforts involving participants from the Middle East, the U.S., Central America, and Sri Lanka. She holds a PhD in Education from the University of New Hampshire, a Master in City Planning from MIT, and a BA degree in Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University.

Roberto Gutierrez Varea began his career in theater in his native city of Cordoba, Argentina. His research and creative work focuses on live performance as a means of resistance and peace-building, in the context of social conflict and state violence. Varea is the founding artistic director of Soapstone Theatre Company, a collective of male ex-offenders and women survivors of violent crime; El Teatro Jornalero!, a performance company that brings the voice of Latin American immigrant workers to the stage; and founding member of the San Francisco-based performance collective Secos & Mojados. He is Associate Editor of Peace Review, an international journal on peace and justice studies, and an associate professor and Chair of the University of San Francisco’s Performing Arts and Social Justice Program. He has over 25 years of credits as a playwright, dramaturg, producer, director, actor, and artistic director, and has won awards and honors for his work throughout his career. Varea holds a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and Psychology from California Lutheran University and a Master of Fine Arts, Theatre, Directing, and Latino Theatre from the University of California San Diego.

Polly O. Walker is a postdoctoral research fellow with the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Queensland. She is principal investigator of a research project examining the role of memorial ceremonies in transforming conflict between Indigenous and Settler peoples in Australia and the United States. She is also collaborating with the Malvatumauri Council of Chiefs in Vanuatu on transformative justice processes related to illegal aspects of the labour trade in Queensland. Prior to this, Walker held the position of lecturer in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit at the University of Queensland, where her research focused on reconciliation and on the reduction of epistemic violence toward Indigenous peoples and their knowledge systems. Walker is of Cherokee and Settler descent and grew up in the traditional country of the Mescalero Apache. She holds a doctorate from the University of Queensland Brisbane, Australia, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New Mexico.