The following collection of short stories explores the notion of being caught between two worlds, of straddling physical, emotional, linguistic and metaphorical borders. I have chosen these characters in order to give voice to those who are often voiceless. The collection has been divided in two parts in order to challenge ideas of what is "real." I argue that the emotional truth of a story is paramount, and this reality can sometimes be best achieved through unconventional means.

This dissertation analyzes the possibilities and limits of art to perform upon borders in the Americas, and to open space for individuals to encounter, experience, and imagine them otherwise. I share the story here of my journeys with two touring transnational art groups working at and across borders: The Frontera Project and Maré from the Inside. The Frontera Project is a community-engaged bi-national performance of varied stories about the U.S.-Mexico border, that aims to complicate simplistic narratives of that border and build connection across difference. Maré from the Inside is an evolving multimedia exhibition addressing the Maré favela complex in Rio de Janeiro that grew out of a collaboration between 'outside' researchers and artists living in that neighborhood. I ask: how are artist/scholars experiencing and imagining borders? How does art perform and (re)shape social, cultural, and political borders? To this end, I place border/lands studies, performance studies, and feminist international relations in dialogue and draw on my ethnographic fieldwork across different sites in the United States, Mexico, and Brazil to examine the ways that politically engaged artists seek to navigate and shape multi-scalar borders. Overall, I argue that Maré and Frontera valorize artistic expression as a form of thought and open space for alternate border imaginaries that challenge existing social frames. They do this through varied performance strategies and processes of collective artmaking that involve careful consideration of the content of their work (whose stories to tell, what the stories contain, what images to use), in tandem with embodied performances that facilitate encounters at and across difference. I utilize collaborative, arts-based methods, drawing on the artists' insights, and further reflect on the possibilities of these methods to challenge prevailing approaches in international relations. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation considers how art can shift the way people imagine the world around them. More specifically, I look at how art acts upon, or shapes, how people imagine borders of different kinds. This includes international boundaries, neighborhood divisions, and the contours of identity in North and South America. I investigate how two art groups have sought to create opportunities to re-think, experience, and imagine borders in new ways. The Frontera Project is a community-engaged bi-national performance of varied stories concerning the U.S.-Mexico border that offers daily-life narratives of that boundary and builds connection across difference. Maré from the Inside is an evolving multimedia exhibition addressing the Maré favela complex in Rio de Janeiro that grew out of a collaboration between 'outside' researchers and artists living in that neighborhood. In this dissertation I ask: how are these artist/scholars experiencing and imagining borders? How does art perform and (re)shape social, cultural, and political borders? Placing border/lands studies, performance studies, and feminist international relations in dialogue and drawing on visits to different sites in the United States, Mexico, and Brazil, I argue that Maré and Frontera valorize artistic expression as a form of thought and open space for alternate border imaginaries that challenge existing social frames. They do this through careful considerations of the content of their work (what the stories contain, whose stories to tell, what images to use), in tandem with embodied performances that facilitate encounters at and across difference.