As an academic and educator, I'm interested in the question of how we listen, and how certain "tropes" of the tropics journey through music, literature, performance, and art, evolving as they travel.

My work bridges Sound Studies, African and African Diaspora Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Literatures and Cultures, and Popular Culture Studies. My interests span a wide range, and they're unified by a commitment to understanding how we can reflect, analyze, and learn to listen with more attention.

I'm an Assistant Professor of Afro-Latin American Cultural Studies in the Department of Spanish at Wake Forest University, and a proud University of Texas at Austin PhD (Hook 'em!). My research has been generously supported by the Tinker Foundation and the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) at UT.

My most recent peer-reviewed publications are:

“Gabriel García Márquez’s Lost Cumbiambas: Distant Listening and Instrumental Creativity in GGM’s Literary Archive.” Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, vol. 57, no. 3, 2023 [published 2024], pp. 453–75.

“Tensiones raciales y visuales en el trópico colombiano: discografías de orquestas sabaneras Pedro Laza y Sus Pelayeros y La Sonora Cordobesa.” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, 2024, pp. 145–71.

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Courses recently taught:

SPN 369. Así suena América Latina: textos, música, videos y cultura popular

SPN 212. Exploring the Hispanic World

SPN 318. From Andes to Patagonia. Interdisciplinary Approaches to South American Culture

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My CV is here.