Conversations/Conversas

Conversations/Conversas is a collaborative project involving faculty from Vanderbilt University and the University of São Paulo, Brazil. The collaborative project was established in 2010 with the support of a grant from Vanderbilt’s International Office.

Since 2010, the initiative has garnered support from the Vanderbilt International Office Exploratory and Development Grants, the Center for Latin American Studies, the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy, the University of São Paulo, and Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet funds.

Project participants include: Vesna Pavlović (Art), Mel Ziegler (Art), Beth Conklin (Anthropology), David Wood (Philosophy), and Ana Maria Tavares (Art, USP), Mario Ramiro (Art, USP), and Martin Grossmann (Institute of Advanced Studies, USP).

Through their research interests and artistic practices, the project participants have actively reflected on the legacy of modernist architecture, the imagination of the city, over-population, the use of natural resources under conditions of accelerating growth, and the problem of sustainability.