Music and Afro-Latin American Studies

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel examines music in the context of Afro-Latin America. The recent publishing of the book Afro-Latin American Studies: An Introduction consolidates four decades of efforts in this field of inquiry characterized by its interdisciplinary and transnational approach to the study of race in Latin America. The papers presented here focus on Afro-Latin American individuals, communities, and systems of race that shape and are shaped by musical practices. By focusing on different geographical areas, nations, and music genres, scholars on this panel will discuss how the study of local contexts contribute to an understanding of continental issues of race, and its intersection with gender, class, national identity, and politics. We will also explore how various methodologies can offer complementary perspectives on studies of music and race, particularly in recent efforts to establish a scholarly dialogue between music and performance studies. Asking what happens when music happens, these essays examine ways in which music scholarship can contribute to the understanding of race in the context of the Americas.

Sub Track

• Afro-Latin/Indigenous Peoples

Session Organizer

• Marcelo B Kuyumjian, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Chair

• Marysol Quevedo, University of Miami

Individual Presentations

• The Rhetoric of Blackness in Cuban Music Video - Susan Thomas, University of Colorado

• Tania León: Color, African-American Culture, and Becoming an American Composer - Alejandro L Madrid, Cornell University

• Cumbia, Tamborito and the Construction of 20th-Century Panamanian National Identity - Sean Bellaviti, Ryerson University

• Bossa Negra: Afro-Brazilian Musicians in Spaces of Whiteness - Marcelo B Kuyumjian, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign