Paul Dwyer

Paul Dwyer is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on performance and social change, particularly in relation to the politics of reconciliation. He has published widely on the work of Brazilian theatre-maker and activist, Augusto Boal, as well as restorative justice practices in settings as diverse as the NSW juvenile justice system and the villages of Bougainville (PNG). His professional theatre credits include a series of documentary theatre works made in collaboration with companies such as version 1.0, Belvoir St, Ilbijerri Theatre and Powerhouse Youth Theatre.

Patricia Hoeppe

Patricia Hoeppe is Professor of Intermedia Arts at the University of Applied Sciences in Frankfurt. Her practice as a performance artist focuses on unresolved social situations, seeking to “form” them artistically. Patricia is represented by imai, the intermedia arts institute of Dusseldorf, and has exhibited throughout Germany, Europe and the US. Recent projects include The Big Arrival (workshops with recently arrived refugees) and Performed City, where thousands of residents performatively examined the problems of social integration in their small town. In 2017, Patricia and her colleagues at Frankfurt University will launch a new Masters program, Performance Studies in Social Fields.

Mahdi Mohammadi

Mahdi Mohammadi is a feminist theatre director from Afghanistan, who has been living in Australia as a refugee since 2013. A graduate of Kabul University, in Afghanistan he developed live theatre that promoted women’s rights and empowerment. In Australia Mahdi continues to tell important social stories, directing, acting and appearing in work with Powerhouse Youth Theatre (PYT), PYT Ensemble and the ABC.

Katie Hepworth

Katie Hepworth is a researcher and organiser who works on borders, race, citizenship and migration. She is a community campaigner with No Business in Abuse, targeting companies profiting from the detention regime. She is a member of art gang boat-people.org, who she collaborates with to create interventions that upset narratives of belonging and nationhood.

Priya Panchalingam

Priya Panchalingam will be participating in the forum on behalf of the Deep Dirt Collective. Deep Dirt Collective is the coming together of seven women artists of colour: We are telling our own stories and resisting dominant culture / We are activating our intuition and healing historical traumas / We are honouring our ancestral roots on our own terms and in our own languages / We are sparking strategies for dismantling the constructs of gender and colonialism / We are transgressive makers of culture / We are Idil Abdullahi, Nicole Barakat, Salwa El-Shaikh, Zeina Iaali, Priya Panchalingam, Samara Shehata & Samia Sayed.