Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the CU Boulder Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship

​

The CU Boulder American Music Research Center (AMRC) is conducting a comprehensive study of the music and music making of Pueblo, Colorado, and the surrounding county. Led by former AMRC Director Susan Thomas—along with Austin Okigbo and Xóchitl Chávez—the project documents the music and culture of the city of Pueblo, Colorado, and its immediate vicinity. Researchers will interview community members who are current and past participants in musical activities and will create a digital archive of interviews and performances that will be accessible to the general public through the University of Colorado Libraries. The project is also partnering with the Latino History Project and K-12 educators to create educational and curricular materials. 

​

Supported by the U.S. Fulbright Student Program and Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad

 

Abbreviated Abstract:

​

In this dissertation, I investigate how climate and climate change have shaped sonic cultures in Punta Arenas, a city located in the southern Chilean region of Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena. I aim to understand how Magallánico, Antarctic, and settler identities manifest themselves in musicking (Small 1998) about climate. Located at the nexus of sound studies, cultural geography, and climate research, my interdisciplinary project addresses the little-studied impact of climate on culture in Chilean Patagonia. This dissertation reflects on the following research questions: (1) How have more-than-human actors sonically negotiated climate change, and how is this process mediated by human musicians? (2) How does (sonic) difference produce territory? Maritory? (3) What sonic and aesthetic qualities are especially attractive to climate-focused musicians? These questions center the work around acoustic ecology, which embraces multiplicity of process and networks of relationality.

     This dissertation thus serves as an urgent case study for understanding how human beings culturally process their world in the face of systemic crisis. Through participant observation, interviews, archival research, and relationship-based learning, I map a network of musicians from diverse genres whose works coalesce around climate and identity. Together with these partners, I map the multiplicity of sonic responses to climate and community changes, weaving

in Patagonian and Antarctic histories. I explore and interrogate the many “strategies of localization” that community members employ in the face of globalized crisis (Escobar 2001).

​

To read an updated version of this dissertation, please contact me! Estoy en el proceso de traducir la tesis al español. 

Supported by the CU Boulder Research and Innovation Office

​

The Indigenous Documentaries and Land Struggle project seeks to explore the land struggles of Indigenous groups around the world on a large and comparative scale. Between 2023-2025, the project is bringing together interdisciplinary researchers, educators, and film artists from around the world for events that include film screenings, roundtables, and reading group discussions. The project's network is expansive and includes individuals and institutions in the United States (CU Boulder, Marquette University, Colby College) and Europe (University of Konstanz, Germany).