The Institute has sponsored single-author and edited volumes, such as Performing Religion in the Americas: Media, Politics and Devotional Practices of the 21st Century (Sea Gull), the result of a work group; and Cuerpos Políticos, a photography book developed out of an Encuentro exhibit. We also support publications that break new ground, such as Teorías de Performance (Fondo de Cultura Económica), the first performance studies reader in Spanish. Additionally, we are experimenting with various hybrid publication formats. Books such as Holy Terrors: Latin American Women Perform (Duke UP) and Stages of Conflict: A Critical Anthology of Latin American Theater and Performance (Michigan UP), combine a traditional print format with an online companion that makes a variety of digital resources available to readers.
What is Performance Studies? is the Hemispheric Institute's first digital book created with SCALAR technologies. Along with an introductory essay by Diana Taylor, this fully trilingual publication is comprised of over 30 video interviews with leading scholars that explore key debates in the field and examine its diverse intellectual trajectories and institutional frameworks across the Americas.
SCALAR is an authoring and publishing platform designed to facilitate the production of long-form scholarly publications online. Developed by the Alliance for Networking Visual Culture, Scalar enables users to assemble media clips and images from multiple sources and juxtapose them with their own writing, giving authors tools to structure essay- and book-length works in ways that take advantage of the unique capabilities of digital writing, including more recursive and non-linear formats.