María Firmino-Castillo

María Regina Firmino-Castillo is a faculty member in the Department of Dance at the University of California, Riverside, where she teaches across the BA, MFA, and PhD programs. A transdisciplinary scholar and artist, Firmino is committed to the study of genocide and its afterlives at the nexus of body/flesh, matter, and ontology. Trained in cultural anthropology, but antidisciplinary in her research and creative practice, Firmino’s scholarly work prioritizes the theoretical insights of collaborators, including Be'ena'Za'a (Zapotec) performance artist Lukas Avendaño, Ixil Maya visual artist Tohil Brito, and Kaqchikel Maya movement and sound artist Daniel Guarcax. A former Institute for Citizens and Scholars fellow, she has recently published “Through the Obsidian Mirror: Onto-Corporeal Experimentations at Twilight” and “Tracing the Ouroboros’ Tail: Paradoxical Politics against Necropolitical Binaries.” Firmino co-authored Uma'l Iq': Tiempo/Espacio Maya Ixil and is currently working on the book Choreographies of Catastrophe: Crepuscular Performance at the End of This World.