My research problematizes the historiography and official discourses of the Colombian music genre bambuco, an urban music championed in the nineteenth century as the representative Colombian national music. Its African origins have sparked an evolutionist debate that separates critics between those who deny these origins and those who accept them. While these debates are epistemologically grounded…

I am a doctoral candidate in the Theatre and Performance Program. My dissertation examines the relationship between performance, cultural policy, and citizenship in Chile from 1979-present. Through an exploration of key case studies (including the works of the Colectivo de Acciones de Arte, Andrés Pérez, Manuela Infante, and Guillermo Calderón), intertwined with analysis of cultural…

My project focuses on New York based artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz. Born in 1934, Ortiz was part of an international group of artists such as Argentine Kenneth Kemble and London based Gustav Metzger who conceptualized destruction in art as a means to address violence in life. My dissertation will examine how Ortiz intersects with other…

My research question is: How do Brazilian activists and organizers in São Paulo and Campinas take up, ignore or reject gender concepts from North America. I am specifically interested in the terms “homem trans” (transman), “tansmasculinidade” (transmasculinity) and “cuir” (queer). Many have discussed what happens to queer theory when it travels,. Missing from these discussions are…

My research is on the role imperial capitalism played in the development of Latin American urban infrastructures, such as lightning and mass transportation. I am interested in understanding the “transnational elites,” meaning the networks that North American and European businessmen attempted to establish in Latin America through personal, family, cultural and trading connections to make…