Dina Alves
Dina Alves is a Brazilian lawyer with a doctorate in Anthropology. She is a Visiting Fellow through the Institute for Advanced Study at Indiana University during the Fall 2022 semester. She is a phenomenal activist and academic. In addition to being a scholar of Social Anthropology and a human rights lawyer, Dr. Alves is an accomplished playwright and actress, and a well-respected activist in the field of Afro-Brazilian human rights. She is particularly focused on Afro-Brazilian women involved in the criminal justice system. Dr. Alves's scholarship focuses on gender, race, antiblackness in Brazil, state violence and carceral geographies. While researching and writing her academic work, Dr. Alves translated its content into dance theater for the 2019 performance “Rés,” which she curated for an Afro-Brazilian dance and theater company and which was supported by Itaú Cultural, a national arts and culture project. Dr. Alves is a trained and experienced artist, with theatrical experience as an actress and playwright dating back to her undergraduate years. She has focused on producing and acting in work exploring questions of human rights and Black freedom, particularly feminist work. Part of the Afro-Brazilian social movement her entire adult life, Dr. Alves has been particularly active in feminist endeavors. She co-founded the Coletivo Autônomo de Mulheres Pretas ADELINAS (ADELINAS Autonomous Collective of Black Women), and has been an anchor in the feminist, antiracist legal scene in São Paulo since 2009.