Join us for a conversation and workshop session exploring the multi-layered, formal and informal ways Brazilian women living in peripheral communities and Brazilian migrants in London develop to resist to gender-based violence. Recent findings from the research Resisting Violence, Creating Dignity: negotiating Violence Against Women and Girls through community history-making in Rio de Janeiro (2019-2021) and Arts-based Project ‘We still fight in the dark’ aims to answer these and other challenging subjects such as how do we build women’s community agency and map pathways for resistance.

The roundtable will discuss recent interdisciplinary and multi-method approaches to capture the multiple forms of direct and indirect violence that occur and the ways they are embodied in women’s everyday lives. It also points to the use of arts-based methods as an effective tool in sensing and understanding multiplicity and complexity in ways that the written word simply cannot.

Projects are led by Professor Cathy McIlwaine (King’s College) with partners at Queen Mary University of London, People’s Palace Projects, Redes da Maré (Rio de Janeiro) the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, MinA – Migrants in Action and LAWRS.

Cathy McIlwaine – Cathy is Professor of Development Geography and Vice Dean (Research), Faculty of Social Sciences and Public Policy at King’s Her current research projects are on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) amongst Brazilian migrants in London and among those living in the favela of Maré in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Newton Fund and the British Academy) and on the experiences of migrant survivors of VAWG with insecure immigration status (funded by the Lloyd’s Foundation). Her work in London and Brazil entails partnerships with with People’s Palace Projects (Queen Mary University of London), Redes da Maré, Latin American Women’s Rights Service and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She is also currently working with the Latin America Bureau ad Migrants in Action.

Moniza Rizzini - Moniza Rizzini Ansari is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of Geography, collaborating on the project “Resisting Violence, Creating Dignity: negotiating Violence Against Women and Girls through community history-making in Rio de Janeiro”. She has a PhD from Birkbeck School of Law and Masters from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Carolina “Cal” Angrisani – Artistic Director at MinA – Migrants in Action, an organisation using theatre as an applied arts tool for working with migrant women with experience of gender-based violence. She holds a BA in Acting and a MA in Applied Theatre from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama where she researched, practiced and developed MinA. She believes in the potential of theatre and the arts as a tool to empower individuals and to bring light into social issues and invisible communities such as Violence Against Women and Girls affecting Brazilian women in London & outside of Brazil.

Simone Amorim - She is community adviser for MInA and a social worker in the area of mental health, co-founder of Frente Preta UK and member of Encrespa Geral Londres – both collectives of Black Brazilians in London fighting against racism and for visibility of the community in the UK.