Speakers

Ana Azevedo believes cultural understanding, reciprocity and long-term people to people relationships are the basis for a more equitable international education sector that can positively impact individuals and societies.   

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Ana has over 16 years of experience in building international partnerships and collaboration with a strong focus on creating connections between Latin America and Oceania. She is interested in skills transfer, knowledge transfer, languages, and cultural idiosyncrasies.   

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Ana represented Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao (ENZ), the New Zealand Government agency for international education, for 12 years in Brazil. In New Zealand she was ENZ’s Head of Internationalisation for 4 years. 

Annelore Spieker is a Teaching Fellow at the School of Arts (University of Waikato) and a PhD candidate in the School of Arts (University of Waikato). Annelore has been teaching at the tertiary level since 2006, dedicating most of her teaching career to media and communication studies, having a particular interest in Latin American cultural studies, postcolonialism, representations of culture, race and ethnicity, pop culture, new methodological approaches in media research, and research with children.

Aline Frey has almost 20 years of research, teaching and artistic experience across universities and colleges in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and Brazil. Her PhD in Film and Cultural Studies (The University of Queensland, Australia) focuses on how Indigenous peoples are using multiple media formats to communicate about historical and contemporary struggles such as colonisation and climate crises. She holds a MA (University of Otago, NZ), and currently works as an Advisor in Research Development (Massey University). She has balanced excellence in teaching and research with a track record of artistic projects, working as an independent filmmaker and photographer.

Declan Patrick is an academic and theatre practitioner working across performance, dance and video. His research takes the form of traditional academic publications and performance. As a theatre practitioner, Declan Patrick has worked as an actor, singer, dancer, playwright, director, choreographer and producer. He has worked as artistic director of a number of companies, and his performance company, Fighting Fit Productions, has made work and toured in New Zealand, the Philippines, China, the United Kingdom and Spain. He is currently a senior lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of Waikato. 

Diego Barbosa is a Brazilian visual artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He has completed a Bachelor in Graphic Design at Universidade do Estado da Bahia, and Honours in Photography at Waikato Institute of Technology, resulting in the project ‘Careta, who are you?’ His practice mainly focuses on symbolism, displacement, cultural identity and hybridism, and his recent works have been exhibited at Ramp Gallery, Never Project Space, and Auckland War Memorial Museum (Aotearoa New Zealand). 

Herbert Spencer is an innovative Interaction Designer and esteemed professor with over two decades of pedagogical experience. A Fulbright Scholar with an MDes from Carnegie Mellon University, he has supervised 70+ theses and taught 20+ courses. Herbert is deeply committed to leveraging technology for civic engagement and deliberation. He currently spearheads a multidisciplinary research project empowering adults with intellectual disabilities. His contributions to the field extend to Latin America, notably through PiX and PICTOS, tools that have significantly impacted interaction design and accessibility. He is also the current head of the Masters Program in Architecture and Design (MAD). 

Janaína Moraes is a Brazilian artist based in Aotearoa (New Zealand), Janaína’s work navigates between dance, language, performance, pedagogy and research as entangled/expanded art forms. Focused in an invitation poétics, she proposes choreography as events that create temporary containers for togethering. Currently a PhD Candidate and Lecturer in Dance Studies at the Waipapa Taumata Rau (University of Auckland). 

Karen Barbour is Associate Professor and Head of Te Kura Toi School of Arts at The University of Waikato. Creativity and embodiment frame her academic research in dance, video/digital dance and creative practice in the arts. She has a particular interest in site dance, relationships to place and environmental change. 

Marcos Mortensen Steagall is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Design at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), where he has been a part of the faculty since February 2016. Within AUT, he serves as the Communication Design Postgraduate Strand Leader and holds the positions of Programme Leader for Communication Design and Interaction Design for Year 3. Dr. Steagall brings a wealth of academic experience to his role, holding a Master’s degree (2000) and a PhD (2006) in Communication & Semiotics from The Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Additionally, he earned a PhD in Art & Design from Auckland University of Technology in 2019. He is actively involved in academic initiatives and currently serves as the editor of the academic journal LINK Praxis. Furthermore, he chairs the LINK International Conference in Practice-led Research and Global South. Dr. Steagall’s research interests encompass various areas, including visual semiotics, practice-oriented research methodologies in the fields of Art, Design, and Technology, lens-based image-making, and indigenous epistemology. As a dedicated academic, he actively supervises both Master’s and PhD students, successfully guiding many to the completion of their degrees. 

Moira Fortin Cornejo is an actress and lecturer at Languages and Cultures at the University of Otago (Aotearoa/New Zealand). She is the author of the book Rapa Nui Theatre: Staging Indigenous Identities in Easter Island (2023), which examines the relationships between theatrical productions and socio-political aspects of Rapa Nui culture from precolonial times to the present. Dr Fortin’s research interest also relates to translation, linguistically and physically, performing in La Panamericana (2019), the Spanish version of The Motorway (2017, 2018, 2019), a bilingual and intercultural take on Cortázar’s La Autopista del Sur, investigating how the change of language affects the acting, the movement, and the overall production of the play. 

Priscila Besen is a Lecturer in Sustainable and Regenerative Architecture at AUT’s Huri Te Ao School of Future Environments. Her research, teaching and practice aim to develop better design practices to create regenerative, healthy, liveable built environments for a post-carbon future. She undertook undergraduate studies in architecture in Brazil and the USA, and completed her Masters and PhD at the University of Auckland. She integrates life-cycle thinking into built environment design through her research on post-occupancy evaluation, co-design, life-cycle energy performance, adaptive reuse and retrofit. 

Raul Sarrot is an Argentinean-born, Aotearoa New Zealand based, designer, strategist and creative director. This globe-trotting creative soul, has as much experience running successful design and branding studios as being ‘on the other side’, taking an active role in corporate boardroom decisions. Raul’s creative background and deep industry experience has been forged working with a mix of international and local clients across all media channels, both commercial and non-for-profit. These days, he divides his time between leading his own boutique design studio (freshfish.co.nz), teaching Design papers at AUT and being a creative strategy consultant to several companies. 

Rodrigo Hill is an established exhibiting artist both in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally specialised in gallery installations and publications. Rodrigo’s creative interests are rooted at the intersection of lens-based and documentary approaches in which photography plays the role of representing layered ‘place-imaginaries’. Rodrigo holds a PhD in practice-led research and is a lecturer at the University of Waikato School of Arts Screen and Media. Rodrigo’s research explores the multiple possibilities that surround photographic practices and how photography is used as a way to perceive and make place.

Alberto Alvarez-Jimenez, is a Colombian and Canadian citizen, based in Aotearoa New Zealand. He holds a PhD degree from the University of Ottawa, a Master of Laws from McGill University, and Law degree from Universidad de la Sabana. Currently, he is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Waikato and his area of research and expertise is international law. 

Tatiana Tavares is a Brazilian-Aotearoa New Zealand designer and a senior lecturer at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is a practising artist with 15 years’ experience in the graphic design industry. Her research practice is concerned with the potentials of polyvocality and interactive digital narrative. Her subjects involve practice-led research methodologies, Latin American syncretism in artistic and literary form, magical realism, and emergent technology. Tatiana is a research associate for the Te Arai research group (Palliative Care & End of Life Research) — School of Nursing (University of Auckland).

Xavier is a visual artist, born in Mexico, living more than half his life in Aotearoa (New Zealand). His practice is in the fields of painting, photography, graphic design, calligraphy, eco design and architecture. Retired tutor and researcher at Wintec in Kirikiriroa. His collaborative poster projects, paintings and photography have been exhibited in Aotearoa, Mexico, Cuba, Spain, Scotland, USA and Croatia. His work has been published in various national and international books and magazines.