Research Interests
- 19th and 20th century political and intellectual histories of Latin America (Brazil focus)
- Exhibition histories and histories of collecting
- Histories of architecture and the built environment
- Vernacular art and architecture and their modernist treatments
- Histories of modernism
- Politics of space
- Histories of race and the built environment
- Documentary and hybrid filmmaking practices
Education
BA, Honours in History, University of British Columbia
MA, Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Museum Studies, New York University
Bio
Pilar Dirickson Garrett is a Brazilian-born writer, researcher, and multidisciplinary arts programmer based in Austin and New York.
As a second-year doctoral student in the Department of Art and Art History and the Center for Latin American Visual Studies (CLAVIS) at the University of Texas at Austin, Pilar specializes in the study of modern Latin American art and architecture with a focus on postwar Brazilian exhibition histories, histories of vernacular art and architecture, politics of space, race, and the built environment, and the intersections of the above with 19th and 20th century political discourses in Brazil. She is currently developing her dissertation prospectus with a research focus on exhibitions of Brazilian popular art from the 1930s through the 1960s and their relationship to conversations on regional self-identification, nationhood, and changing definitions of the modern in relation to the vernacular.
Before returning to school, Pilar served as Associate Director of Cinema Tropical, the leading presenter of Latin American cinema in the United States. Through her work with Cinema Tropical she partnered with such cultural organizations as Film at Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Museum of Modern Art, Anthology Film Archives, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at NYU, the CUNY Mexican Studies Institute, the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University, the Brazilian Consulate in New York, the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, New York Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, New York Botanical Garden, Brasil Summerfest, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and more. Pilar holds a BA in History with Honours from the University of British Columbia and an MA in Latin American Studies and Museum Studies from New York University.
Pilar’s pre-dissertation research has been supported by the Department of Art and Art History and the College of Fine Arts at UT Austin. She is also a 2023 Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Fellow in Brazilian Portuguese, supported through the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies.