Denise Ferreira da Silva

Denise Ferreira da Silva is a Professor and Director of the Institute for Social Justice (Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice [GRSJ]) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. Prior to joining UBC, she was an Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California San Diego in the United States, and at the School of Business and Management (2010–2015) and Director of the Centre for Ethics and Politics at the Queen Mary University of London, UK. Her research interests include critical race and ethnic studies, feminist theory, critical legal theory, political theory, moral philosophy, postcolonial studies, and Latin American and Caribbean studies. Ferreira da Silva is regularly invited to participate in international events and contribute to publications in academic and artistic contexts. She is the author of Toward a Global Idea of Race (University of Minnesota Press, 2007), A Dívida Impagável (Oficina da Imaginaçāo Política and Living Commons, 2019), Unpayable Debt (Stenberg/MIT Press, 2022), and co-editor (with Paula Chakravartty) of Race, Empire, and the Crisis of the Subprime (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013). Her numerous articles have been published in leading interdisciplinary journals, such as Social Text, Theory, Culture & Society, Social Identities, PhiloSOPHIA, Griffith Law Review, Theory & Event, and The Black Scholar, to name a few. Her artistic works include the films Serpent Rain (2016)and 4 Waters: Deep Implicancy (2018), in collaboration with Arjuna Neuman; and the relational art practices Poethical Readings and Sensing Salon, in collaboration with Valentina Desideri. She has exhibited and lectured at major art venues, such as the Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Whitechapel Gallery (London, UK), MASP (Sāo Paulo, Brazil), Guggenheim (New York, USA), and MoMa (New York). She has also written for publications for major art events (Liverpool Biennale, 2017; Sāo Paulo Biennale, 2016; Venice Biennale, 2017, and documenta 14) and published in art journals such as Canadian Art, Texte Zur Kunst, and e-flux.`