We encourage our students to pursue their work, wherever it takes them. This can mean studying abroad via Independent Study and Research (ISR). We want to share their discoveries – both academic and personal – via these profiles.
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Researching Abroad
I have been living and studying in Brazil for the fall 2023 and spring 2024 semesters, working on research for my dissertation project. I am examining the relationship between religion and art in Brazil, starting with modernism and taking the art museum as both a particular site where this relationship manifests and, as such, a locus for theorizing the secular in Brazil. My hope is the dissertation will contribute to conversations around secularism in Brazil, the aesthetics of the secular, and the museum as a secularizing institution.
Practically speaking, this has meant visiting art museums, galleries, and temporary exhibitions like the Bienal de São Paulo, viewing the art but also documenting and examining the way it is exhibited, how it is framed by wall text, and how it works in the space. My project tries to denaturalize the way art is presented in the museum in order to understand the museum itself as an actor: working on the art, the space, and the viewer. In addition to viewing exhibited art, my method has also involved visiting museums’ archival collections and visiting archives related to writers influential in the formation of modernism in Brazil. I have also had one-on-one interviews with gallerists, curators, and artists, which I hope to do more of in my remaining time.
Brazilian studies is a rather small subfield within religious studies in the U.S., but living in Brazil grants me access to so many more conversation partners and interlocutors. Living here also gives me incredible access to books relevant to my research, including secondary literature by Brazilian academics, art criticism, and exhibition catalogs. These layers of access have been extremely productive for my thinking.
As scholars, we all have communities of accountability: communities where we do fieldwork, groups we study, or even historical figures we encounter in the archives. As someone from the U.S. studying Brazil, one of the most impactful aspects of researching in Brazil has been the ability to connect with Brazilian academics and art practitioners (e.g. artists, curators, critics).
Now that I am finished with coursework, I am responsible for establishing my own academic diet and creating my own set of conversation partners. Being here, I have been able to build and strengthen relationships with other scholars working on Brazil. Often these people either began as or have become friends as well as colleagues. I have also benefited this year from my involvement as a research fellow in the Museum of Modern Art’s Cisneros Institute’s “Bridging the Sacred” research project. There I have connected with other scholars engaging with the relationship between religion and art in Latin America. The connections I’ve made in Brazil have often been surprising or unexpected. For example, I met a curator by happenstance while attending a theatrical performance who introduced me to one of the artists now central to my project.
ISR Fellowship Advice:
- Approach the experience with humility. Understand your positionality as an academic visiting a place for scholarly purposes. Knowing the difference between collaborative, as opposed to extractive, power relations is critical for doing responsible research. Second, plan as much as you can, but know your plans will change; part of your work during this time is learning to live in a new place. This takes energy, and it can feel isolating, but it is especially important if you hope to return to this place throughout your academic career. In Brazil, basic things like joining a gym, setting up my phone, or taking the subway proved more complicated at first due to bureaucratic hoops.
- Take advantage of the freedom you have during this time. Explore intellectually and build academic networks outside of UT. Draw on UT resources, including alumni. Additionally, find ways to connect and create outside of your academic work. Taking photographs has been a big part of my non-academic experience here.
- As graduate students, we are both students and workers; understand what you are getting into financially and practically before agreeing to do the ISR. This is an academic opportunity but also a professional decision. Make sure you understand, as best you can, how this changes your funding, insurance coverage, and student status. The university will be there to help you to an extent, but this is in many ways an independent venture.
- Lastly, try to have fun and say yes to adventure! I imagine there will be much of that in store, too. There has been for me.