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Staff Profile

Dr Danilo Barauna

British Academy International Fellow

Background

I am a queer academic researcher, lecturer, independent curator, and visual artist. Throughout the years, I have worked in the HE sector, primary and secondary education, and the cultural industries, developing art projects both as an institutional and independent curator. My interdisciplinary research concerns the fields of queer studies (ecological, decolonial, and affective approaches) and artists’ moving image theory and criticism, with a particular interest in LGBTQIAPN+ art and cultural production from the Brazilian Amazon.

I currently work as the British Academy International Fellow at Newcastle University School of Modern Languages (SML), where I am developing the research project titled 'From queer ecology towards haunted aesthesis: disorientation, care and futurities in the LGBTQIAPN+ artists' moving image from the Brazilian Amazon', or simply 'Amazônia EcoQueer' (Instagram: @amazoniaecoqueer). Prior to joining SML, I worked in Brazil as a Postdoctoral Researcher at São Paulo State University (UNESP), funded by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), and as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Federal University of Pará, funded by CAPES Foundation - Brazilian Ministry of Education. I hold a PhD in Fine Art from The Glasgow School of Art, fully funded by CAPES Foundation.

I have published my research in journals such as FRAMES Cinema Journal, A Barca, Visualidades, Agenda Política, GEMInIS, Arteriais, Cartema, and book chapters and papers in international conference proceedings. I have curated screening events and exhibitions in Brazil, Argentina, and the United Kingdom, as well as participated as an artist in exhibitions and public screenings in cities such as Glasgow, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belém, Manaus, Macapá, Ouro Preto, Salvador.


EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

  • Newcastle University (The British Academy International Fellow)
  • São Paulo State University (FAPESP Postdoctoral Research Fellow)
  • Federal University of Pará (CAPES Postdoctoral Research Fellow)
  • The Glasgow School of Art (Graduate Teaching Assistant)
  • Social Service of Commerce - São Paulo Cultural Centres (Cultural Programming)
  • University of São Paulo (Graduate Teaching Assistant)
  • Federal University of Pará (Art Teacher - primary and secondary school, and Visiting Lecturer - BA Visual Arts)


EDUCATION

  • PhD Fine Art - The Glasgow School of Art (United Kingdom), fully funded by CAPES Foundation - Brazilian Ministry of Education
  • MPhil Film & Media - University of São Paulo (Brazil), with exchange period at the University of Glasgow (United Kingdom), fully funded by FAPESP - São Paulo Research Foundation.
  • Specialization Course (Postgraduate Diploma equivalent) in Linguistic Studies and Literary Analysis - Pará State University
  • BA with Teaching Qualification in Visual Arts - Federal University of Pará.


PRIZES

  • 2025 - Study UK Alumni Awards Brazil (British Council) - Finalist in the category Culture and Creativity.
  • 2015 - Art in School Prize (Art in School Institute) - Winner in the category Secondary Education.
  • 2011 - Best Undergraduate Research Project (Federal University of Pará) - Winner in the category Arts


FELLOWSHIPS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

  • 2025 - The British Academy International Fellowship
  • 2024 - Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (São Paulo Research Foundation)
  • 2022 - Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (CAPES Foundation - Brazilian Ministry of Education)
  • 2021 - Access International Scholarship (The Glasgow School of Art)
  • 2018 - PhD Abroad Full Scholarship (CAPES Foundation - Brazilian Ministry of Education)
  • 2015 - Research Internship Abroad - Master's Degree (São Paulo Research Foundation)
  • 2014 - Master's Degree Full Scholarship (São Paulo Research Foundation)
  • 2010 - Undergraduate Research Assistant Fellowship (Amazon Research Foundation)
  • 2009 - Undergraduate Research Assistant Fellowship (Brazilian National Research Council - CNPq)


GRANTS

  • 'Underwater we float amongst the moss: artists' moving image from the Brazilian Amazon' - 'DIVING' Open Call for Moving Image Projects 2023 (Pará Cultural Foundation)
  • 'Video Art from Pará: sitematization and critical analysis' - Open Call for Projects 2013 - Creative Economy (Brazilian National Research Council - CNPq)
  • 'Video Art in Secondary Education - Part II' - Program for the Support of Methodological Innovation 2012 (Federal University of Pará)
  • 'Video Art in Secondary Education - Part I' - Program for the Support of Methodological Innovation 2011 (Federal University of Pará)
  • 'Students' Narratives Seminar' - PROEX Art and Culture Award 2011 (Federal University of Pará).
  • 'Students' Narratives Seminar' - PROEX Art and Culture Award 2011 (Federal University of Pará).


PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

  • British Academy Early Career Researcher Network (BA ECRN)
  • British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS)
  • Brazilian Association of Transhomoculture (ABETH)
  • European Network of Brazilianists Working in Cultural Analysis (REBRAC)
Research

My research lies at the intersection of Queer Studies (ecological, decolonial and affective approaches), Artists' Moving Image Theory and Criticism and Latin American Studies, with a particular interest in LGBTQIAPN+ art and cultural production from the Brazilian Amazon.

I have been conducting research since 2009, beginning with individual projects as an Undergraduate Research Assistant funded by the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq) and the Amazon Research Foundation (FAPESP). These projects involved mapping and critically analyzing moving image art and installation art from the State of Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon, contributing to the incorporation of this cultural production into a national history of art in Brazil. Over time, my research evolved to include discussions related to queerness and decolonization from an affective and ecological perspective.


CURRENT RESEARCH

From Queer Ecology Towards Haunted Aesthesis: Disorientation, Care and Futurities in the LGBTQIAPN+ artists' moving form the Brazilian Amazon.

Short title: Amazônia EcoQueer

Funder: The British Academy - International Fellowship (IF24\100830)

UK Sponsor: Dr Giuliana Borea (Senior Lecturer in Latin American Studies)

Institution: Newcastle University

Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/amazoniaecoqueer/

Abstract: This research aims to analyse the strategies used by LGBTQIAPN+ moving image artists from the Brazilian Amazon to imagine queer ecological futures for the Amazon. In the current environmental crisis, queer ecology scholars suggest that we must learn from queer modes of conviviality to overcome contemporary ecological issues. Despite limited forays, recent literature on queer ecology also indicates the inevitability of expanding itself to the discussions on genders and sexualities from the Global South to decolonise the discipline. Nevertheless, current research provides little evidence of the aforementioned geographical context’s contribution to the existing environmental discussions on queer ecology, mainly when considering the artistic production of queer artists. Therefore, in this project I present the hypothesis that in their work, LGBTQIAPN+ moving image artists from the Brazilian Amazon employ a haunted aiesthesis, understood as a queer ecological practice aiming to decolonise affects and imagine queer/cuir futures that challenge the binary conceptions of extractivism in the Amazon, thus promoting awareness-raising regarding the environmental challenges in the region. This project is designed as a multiple-case study, and I will explore the three key concepts disorientation, care, and futurities, through the analysis of the work of the following artists: 1) Disorientation: Allyster Fagundes, Rafael Matheus Moreira, and Ramon Reis; 2) Care: Danielle Fonseca and Nay Jinknss; 3) Futurities: Keila Sankofa, Rafa Bqueer, and Uýra. The methodology of this project is based on archival research, queer oral history, and textual analysis and I will implement the following three main procedures: 1) Archival research: creating a digital archive for the artworks, artists’ writings, and video stills; 2) Interviews: elaborating and conducting interviews with the selected artists based on the methods and procedures of queer oral history; 3) Analysis: analysis and writing about the artworks and the previously described topics (disorientation, care, and futurities) following the stage of data collection, connecting the methods of queer oral history and textual analysis. The outcomes of this project include a monograph, 2 articles published in peer-reviewed journals, a workshop on Latin American Art, a series of moving image screenings across the United Kingdom and Brazil, and a dedicated page on Tainaca’s website to share the generated data and metadata.


PHD RESEARCH

Projective moving image installation as disorientation device: a phenomenology of queer encounters

Funder: CAPES Foundation - Brazilian Ministry of Education

Supervisory team: Professor Sarah Smith (Head of Research and Professor of Visual Culture); Dr Francis McKee (Lecturer | Interdisciplinary Research); Professor Sarah Neely (Theatre, Film & Television Studies - University of Glasgow).

Institution: The Glasgow School of Art

Abstract: In this thesis, I explore the experience of disorientation within projective moving image installations as informed by the emergence of queer affects in the relatively conventional space of art galleries and museums. Despite limited forays into this field, the literature on the uses of projection in a contemporary art context indicates this experience as disorientating. Nevertheless, current research stops short of providing evidence regarding what it means to be disoriented in an art context and exploring possible forms of materialising this experience in academic writing. Consequently, the research question posed in this thesis is: How can disorientation facilitate an understanding of queer affective experiences within projective moving image installations? To investigate this question, I employed a queer phenomenological and autoethnographic methodology to explore these fleeting disorientated moments. This is to account for an analysis that considers elements such as first-person voice, self-narration, and autobiographical notes as queer methods appropriate to approaching disorientation as a queer affective experience. This thesis is designed as a multiple case study, composed of an experimental critical analysis of six artworks or exhibitions in which disorientation was a direct result of my experiences in the art galleries. The first part of each analytical chapter is composed of an affect-oriented description of my live encounters with the case studies, intended to capture the disorientated moments via self-narration. The second part integrates description and theory to analyse the relationships between disorientation and the queer affects that emerged in the encounters with the artworks. These chapters are organised around the three core experiences that result in disorientation described by Sara Ahmed (2006), called zooming in, becoming an object, and disturbing the others, and explore the key concepts of camp, cruising and besideness that are specifically related to each of the case studies. My original contribution to knowledge in the field of moving image art criticism is a demonstration that projective moving image installations are disorientation devices due to the magnetising aspects of projected moving images, which lead the bodies in the gallery to gather around whilst experiencing fleeting moments of disorientation that destabilise binaries used to describe the experience in the gallery, such as wandering and absorption. Consequently, this process is characterised as a queer affective experience informed by a fluid movement between queer kinaesthetic engagements and the histories and sedimentations of bodies.


CURATORIAL PROJECTS

  • Transgressing Bodies, Disorienting Spaces (UNESP-SP, Brazil)
  • Underwater we float amongst the moss: artists' moving image from the Brazilian Amazon (Museum of Image and Sound from Pará, Brazil)
  • Flujos al norte, aguas del sur (UNAM, San Martín, Argentina)
  • ZL on the Run! Music Videos Screening (SESC Cultural Centre, São Paulo, Brazil)
  • Labyrinth: screening for children (SESC Cultural Centre, São Paulo, Brazil)
  • Buruburu: traces, healing and affect (SESC Cultural Centre, São Paulo, Brazil)
  • SCI-FI Classics: a four-decades journey through the fantastic world of SCI-FI B Films (SESC Cultural Centre, São Paulo, Brazil)
  • Heroes' conversations (SESC Cultural Centre, São Paulo, Brazil)
  • Amazonian Video Art (Cinema of the Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow, United Kingdom)
  • Precedents (FOTOATIVA Association Gallery, Belém, Brazil)
  • Arte Pará - Curatorial Assistant (Historic Museum of Pará, Brazil)
Teaching

During my period at the School of Modern Languages (2025-2027), I will contribute to the following courses led by Dr Giuliana Borea:

  • LAS1010 - Introduction to Latin America
  • LAS4007 - Latin American Art


My teaching experience comprises the following:

  • Graduate Teaching Assistant (The Glasgow School of Art, Fine Art Critical Studies Department); Degree: BA Fine Art (Paint & Printmaking, Fine Art Photography and Sculpture & Environmental Art); Contribution to the First Year Modules 'Narrating Art: Key Terms' and 'Co-Lab: Reading, Looking and Writing', and supervised 4 Fourth Year final dissertations.
  • Lecturer (Federal University of Pará, Postgraduate program in Arts); Degree: PhD and MPhil Arts; Module leader (with Dr Hosana Celeste) of the optional course 'Emotion and Affect: encounters with contemporary art, neurosciences and queer studies'.
  • Graduate Teaching Assistant (University of São Paulo, Department of Film, Radio and Television); Degree: BA Audiovisual; Contributions to the module 'Direction III - TV and Multicameras'
  • Visiting Lecturer (Federal University of Pará, Program for the Further Education of Primary and Secondary Teachers); Degree: BA with Teaching Qualification in Visual Arts; Module leader of the courses 'Animation Lab' and 'Audiovisual Lab'.
  • Art Teacher (Federal University of Pará, Primary and Secondary School); Teaching of the mandatory course 'Art' for primary, secondary and young adults education.


I have also taught courses in non-formal education institutions, such as the Museum of Image and Sound from Pará, NGO's, Museum 'Casa das Onze Janelas', and São Paulo State University.

Publications

  • Artefacts

    • Baraúna, D. Rainhas (Queens). Belém, Brazil: Centro Cultural Bienal das Amazônias, 2024.
    • Baraúna D. Body-Landscape, from the series 'Is Love Queer or a Video?'. Online: Online, 2024.
    • Baraúna, D. Bicha, from the series 'Is Love Queer or a Video?'. Online: Online, 2019.
    • Baraúna, D. Retrato Suspensão. Glasgow, Scotland: Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, 2014.

  • Articles

  • Book Chapters

    • Leote, R, Oliveira, H, Baraúna, D. Abordagens da Neurociência sobre a percepção da obra de arte. In: Paulo Bernardino Bastos, ed. Praxis and Poiesis: From Arts Practice Toward Art Theory. Portugal: Editora da Universidade de Aveiro, 2020, pp.131-150.
    • Leote, R, Celeste, H, Baraúna, D. Apropriações da arte pela ciência - casos da Neuropsicologia. In: Rosangella Leote, ed. ArteCiênciaArte. São Paulo State University Press, 2016, pp.235-252.
    • Furtado B, Barauna D, Maneshy O. Percursos da Imagem na Arte Contemporânea Paraense. In: Marcos Antônio Bessa-Oliveira; Edgar Cézar Nolasco, ed. Artes Visuais: questões do crítico-contemporâneo nacional/local. Mato Grosso, Brazil: Pedro & João Press, 2013, pp.23-25.

  • Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

    • Maneschy O, Stoco S, Baraúna D. Irradiações, algumas notas e demarcações: do universo LGBTQIAP+ e as Artes Visuais em Belém (PA) (1980-2020). In: 30º Encontro Nacional da Associação Nacional de Pesquisadores em Artes Plásticas - (Re)existências. 2021, João Pessoa, Brazil: ANPAP.
    • Celeste, O, Baraúna, Danilo, Leote, R. Teoria neurológica da experiência estética de Ramachandran e Hirstein: apresentação, comentários e proposta de aplicação. In: 5º Meeting of Research Groups on the Convergence of Art, Science and Technology & Mixed Realities. 2014, São Paulo, Brazil: ECA/USP. In Preparation.
    • Garcia, B, Baraúna, D, Maneschy, O. Audiovisual no Ensino Médio: Videoarte paraense como conteúdo e material didático - considerações preliminares. In: 22º Encontro Nacional da Associação Nacional de Pesquisadores em Artes Plásticas. 2013, Belém, Brazil: ANPAP.
    • Maneschy, O, Baraúna, D. Limites e contaminações da imagem no espaço: mapeamento da produção contemporânea paraense. In: 20º Encontro Nacional da Associação Nacional de Pesquisadores em Artes Plásticas - Subjetividade, Utopias e Fabulações. 2011.

  • Creative Writing

    • Baraúna, D, Maneshy, O. If my body moves ... | Se meu corpo move. Underwater we float amongst the moss: artists' moving image from the Brazilian Amazon 2023. PPGArtes Press, 1, 7-8.

  • Editorials

    • Baraúna D, Hosni C, Celeste H, Maneschy O, Paiva A. Contextos e Práticas do Audiovisual Experimental | Parte II. Arteriais 2024, 10(17), 54-63.
    • Baraúna D, Hosni C, Celeste H, Maneschy O, Paiva A. Contextos e Práticas do Audiovisual Experimental | Parte I. Arteriais 2024, 10(16), 111-123.

  • Online Publication

    • Baraúna, D, Maneschy, O, Barbosa, M. Underwater we float amongst the moss: artists' moving image from the Brazilian Amazon. Belém, Brazil: PPGArtes Press, 2023. Available at: https://livroaberto.ufpa.br/handle/prefix/1241.

  • Review

    • Baraúna, D. Debaixo d'água flutuamos entre musgos: mostra de audiovisual experimental no Pará. Cartema 2025, 15(15). In Press.

  • Scholarly Edition

    • Baraúna D, Hosni C, Celeste H, Maneschy O, Paiva A. Contextos e Práticas do Audiovisual Experimental | Parte II. Arteriais Journal 2024. Belém, Brazil: PPGArtes Press, 10 (17), 380.