Dr Bibiana Oliveira Serpa
IAS Residential Fellow
Nem Presa Nem Morta Campaign
Dr Bibiana Oliveira Serpa is a Brazilian designer, researcher and activist whose work brings together participatory design research, social movement theory, feminist praxis and visual communication for social change. She holds a PhD in Design from Rio de Janeiro State University, where she developed Militant Design Research, a methodological approach based on Paulo Freire's pedagogy and Latin American social research traditions.
Bibiana has taught at an academic level on the Bachelor's programme in Visual Communication at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She is a guest lecturer on the Master's and PhD programmes in Design at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. Bibiana currently coordinates the ‘Nem Presa Nem Morta’ campaign, an initiative that defends reproductive justice in Brazil through communication and design strategies. She is also co-founder of the Design and Oppression Network, an international community that connects design researchers and professionals through study groups, courses and collaborative projects.
Bibiana is an experienced popular educator in grassroots initiatives. Her research emerges from academic enquiry combined with political engagement with social movements. She has collaborated with said movements in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Guatemala. Her work has been widely published in journals, conferences and edited collections in Portuguese, Spanish and English.
During her Residential Fellowship, Bibiana will be collaborating with Dr Ana Cristina Suzina and Professor Thomas Tufte, from the Institute for Creative Futures.