Study Group Board 

Who we are:

We are entering this election as a team of motivated and dedicated LAT CAR members, composed of a dynamic group of interdisciplinary researchers with a focus on the fields of ethnomusicology and ethnochoreology. As a team, we represent a diverse background of regions (the Caribbean, Central, South and North America), of a wide range of languages (spoken and/or worked with), fieldwork and research expertise in terms of academic backgrounds, musical abilities, and publications. We also combine a wide array of work experience in different international research and academic networks. 

From the beginning, our team has been very active in the ICTM LAT CAR Study Group. Our members have been involved in the process of founding the Study Group, laying the groundwork for the LAT CAR Study Group, organizing the last two Symposia, and in establishing LAT CAR’s future goals. This has been a lively process of initiating a direct and close dialog between LAT CAR board members, ICTM officials, and LAT CAR members as well as symposia participants in order to install a non-hierarchical workflow process that has shaped LAT CAR as a Study Group. Furthermore, the LAT CAR Study Group aims to serve our communities as a space for open dialog with non-academic masters and practitioners of traditional knowledges, researchers, and students alike. 

LAT CAR stands for:

• a multilingual regional research network: connecting perspectives and helping to bring researchers together in order to provide a platform of exchange and visibility within the ICTM.

• the participation of underrepresented sociopolitical groups, such as individuals and communities that have been historically discriminated against and marginalized due to their ethnicity, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, religion, abilities, age, or political beliefs; thereby giving space and voice to the diverse narratives that shape this vast region of the world.

• a space of solidarity with music and dance practitioners, researchers, and professionals focusing on the Latin American and Caribbean regions, working with its many types of sound/movement practices, and applying various methods of research, analysis and dissemination. We also consider the LAT CAR Study Group  to be a space for colleagues affected or invisibilized by colonially-construed academic structures and representations, and we encourage approaches to research that span beyond the academic scope.

• a space open to researchers and students who are new to ICTM or have been  unable to participate due to financial, political, travel, or language issues.

Long term goals for the Study Group:

• to facilitate Latin American and Caribbean access to the ICTM, and to enable a multilingual exchange of experiences and research in Latin America and the Caribbean through broadening the possibilities of access, social inclusion, and representation of the underrepresented groups mentioned above, including their regions, languages, academic fields and levels.

• to evaluate the possibilities of expanding the languages of the Study Group in order to include more languages from Latin America and the Caribbean 

• to expand and strengthen collaborations within the ICTM and other music research organisations

• to contribute to Executive Board discussions on membership outreach and cost, as well as scholarships and financial aid for members

• to create within the LAT CAR group alternative funding options to financially support attendance to simposia 

• to evaluate the process of application and acceptance, as well as the presentation formats at symposia in order to ensure wider socio-political and epistemological representation 

• to create a bridge between professionals and their knowledge in music education and ethnomusicology and to disseminate best practices in music education and promote social inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Immediate action plan for the board's two-year period:

• Call for and election of host institution for Study Group symposium 2022 

• Study Group reports for ICTM bulletin and to the ICTM Executive Board

• Organize LAT CAR panels and round tables for Lisbon 2021

• Update and enhance LAT CAR’s social media representation

• Prepare and carry out Study Group business meeting for Lisbon 2021

• Explore options for Study Group publications

• Plan and organize Symposium 2022, incl. call for papers

• Establish a language action (multilingual inclusion) plan for the Study Group

• Establish a cooperation with the ICTM LA Outreach Committee and with national representatives in the LAT CAR region 

Biographies

Javier Silvestrini (Puerto Rico):

Javier Silvestrini (1978-) is from San Juan, Puerto Rico. He studied classical guitar performance at Laval University in Quebec, Canada and music pedagogy at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna - mdw. He is a PhD fellow in ethnomusicology at the Department for Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology at the mdw, currently completing his PhD studies on Afro-Caribbean Plena, under the supervision of Professors Ursula Hemetek and Julio Mendívil in Vienna. His research focus includes urban Afro-Caribbean musics; music and the Caribbean diasporas; intersectional approaches to music and race, class, gender, and nationality in the Caribbean; pedagogical research approaches in ethnomusicology; participatory research methods; and postcolonial ethnomusicology. He is a founding member of the ICTM Study Group Music and Dance in Latin America and the Caribbean. Since his affiliation with the ICTM in 2017, his goal has been to bring together a young generation of scholars and established academics to collaborate on founding a language and geographically-based network of scholarship in the Latin American and Caribbean area. His aim is to achieve greater visibility within the ICTM of research from the Latin American and the Caribbean region, while providing more possibilities of collaboration on topics such as social inclusion, self-representation of underrepresented groups, and direct participation of communities in the knowledge production processes. He is also part of the ICTM study groups on Music and Minorities, Music, Gender and Sexuality, Musical Education and Social Inclusion, and Applied Ethnomusicology. 

Nora Bammer (Austria/Ecuador):

Nora Bammer studied ethnomusicology, Spanish and anthropology at the University of Vienna, Austria and in Guayaquil, Ecuador. She currently works as a research and teaching fellow at the University of Vienna with her PhD research developing around the conceptualization and contextualization of Shuar songs and singing in the Ecuadorian Amazon basin (supervisors: Julio Mendívil and Elke Mader). Further research interests are the ethnomusicology of Amazonia, Indigenous ontologies, Postcolonial and Decolonizing theory, and Gender Studies. Nora Bammer is an experienced field researcher and feels at home in both Ecuador and Austria. She has presented internationally and is part of a work group for the decolonization of ethnomusicology in the DACH region. As part of her academic networks she is a member of national and international research associations on Latin America and Amazonia and has been part of ICTM since 2012. Currently, Nora is on the board of the ICTM Austrian National Committee and a founding board member of the Study Group for Music and Dance in Latin America and the Caribbean – LAT CAR. Also, she is a member of the ICTM Study Groups on Music, Gender and Sexuality, Music and Minorities, and Applied Ethnomusicology.

As a board member, she would focus on networking and creating additional spaces for ethnomusicological and ethnochoreological research exchange in Latin America and the Caribbean. In collaboration with Javier Silvestrini, Nora has so far been co-responsible for the communication between the Study Group and the ICTM General Secretary and Executive Board which shall be broadened by further cooperating with the ICTM Outreach Committee for Latin America and the national representatives and liaison officers. If elected, Nora is looking forward to co-planning and co-organizing the next Study Group meetings, to facilitating access and participation of interested members, and to concentrating on networks in and for LAT CAR. She is motivated by a collaborative, non-hierarchical work approach within and beyond the board-team. Her goal is to continuously reach out to interested colleagues and their experiences in order to enhance representation and support within the ICTM network and also beyond academic structures.  

Magda Pucci (Brazil):

Magda Pucci (b.1964) is a Brazilian musician  – arranger, composer, and singer – and an independent researcher about musics of the world and Brazilian Indigenous cultures. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in Music at the University of São Paulo. She has a master's degree in Anthropology from PUC-SP and a Ph.D. in Artistic Research at Leiden University in the Netherlands. As the musical director and founder of Mawaca – a São Paulo-based musical group – she has produced 5 CDs and 4 DVDs, and she has performed across Brazil and toured in more than 8 countries. Mawaca was awarded the PPM Prize in 2017 and 2019. She is the author of books related to Indigenous topics and music education, and she works as a music educator giving music workshops. Magda is an invited teacher in post-graduation and extension courses at UNICAMP, UNESPAR, and UFGD. She has been working on musical projects in collaboration with Brazilian Indigenous communities such as Kayapó, Guarani Kaiowa, Huni-Kuin, Paiter Surui, and others. She has also worked on NGO social projects for children and directed a group of refugees based in São Paulo. She has published articles in Música Popular, Vibrant, and ABEM journals. Her interests include cultural musicology, Amazonian Indigenous music, world music pedagogy, applied or participatory ethnomusicology, community music, artistic research, performance, and Indigenous anthropology. She has been a member of ICTM since 2013. She is also the state coordinator of the Brazilian section of FLADEM - Latin American Forum on Musical Education - within which she developed an online pedagogy format during the pandemic. If elected, she will seek to bring music education experts closer to the area of ​​ethnomusicology so that research findings better reach school spaces. She will also seek to expand the dissemination of ICTM LAT CAR  activities to other countries in Latin America, in particular to Brazil.

Juan Bermudez (México/Austria):

Juan Bermúdez is a Mexican ethnomusicologist based in Austria. He studied music (marimba) at the University of Sciences and Arts of Chiapas (Mexico), as well as ethnomusicology at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz (Austria). He has participated in several research projects on various marimba traditions in Mexico, as well as on traditional songs in Styria (Austria), and whose results have been presented at various international symposia and conferences. He has also been the editor of two books, as well as the author of several articles. He is currently a doctoral candidate (in ethnomusicology) and uni:docs Fellow from the University of Vienna. His current research focuses on identities, performances, and meanings in the smartphone application TikTok. He has been an active member of the ICTM since 2017 and was organizer, as well the programming committee chair of the 1st ICTM LAT CAR Symposium at the Faculty of Music of the University of Sciences and Arts of Chiapas, Mexico, in March 2020.

Jessie Vallejo (USA/Mexico/Ecuador):

Dr. Jessie M. Vallejo is an Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at the California State Polytechnic University in Pomona. At Cal Poly Pomona, as it is commonly referred to, she teaches classes across the music curriculum and directs student mariachi ensembles. Jessie Vallejo's research and publications focus on Kichwa-Otavalan music in the Andes, Kanien'keha (Mohawk) music in language immersion programs, and mariachi music. Jessie Vallejo has performed and presented her research at conferences or as an invited guest across the United States and at events in Ireland, Ecuador, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Uruguay, Canada, Mexico, and Cuba. In addition to her position at Cal Poly Pomona, she has collaborated with the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. Jessie has published with the Smithsonian Folklife Magazine, the Smithsonian Magazine, Ethnomusicology Forum, and in the second volume of The Ethnomusicologists' Cookbook. Currently, she is completing her final year as the Secretary-Treasurer for the Society of Ethnomusicology's Southern California and Hawai'i Chapter (SEMSCHC). Jessie began her studies as a classical violinist, but she now regularly performs with mariachi groups across southern California. While at UCLA, Jessie studied mariachi music for seven years under Jesús Guzmán, Director of Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano. Prior to her graduate studies, Dr. Vallejo was a certified teacher of music and orchestras in New York State K-12 schools.

Jessie has been a member of ICTM since 2011, and she is running for ICTM LAT CAR's position of webmaster. She is familiar with basic coding and website platforms, such as Google Sites, which is a convenient platform that allows for accessible content and easy transfer of ownership to future webmasters. She is committed to making sure LAT CAR's website and social media provide materials in multiple languages. If elected, she will look forward to working with fellow board members to plan for upcoming meetings, expand languages included in the Study Group's communications, explore possibilities for future publications through LAT CAR, and find ways to support the region's representation in the general membership of ICTM.

Lucilene Silva (Brazil):

Lucilene Silva is Brazilian and holds master's and doctoral degrees in music from the State University of Campinas - Unicamp - SP. She is a researcher at the Ethnomusicology Institute at Universidade Nova de Lisboa - INET-md, as well as with the FAPESP Thematic Project 'O Musicar Local - New Paths for Ethnomusicology,' coordinated by ethnomusicologist Suzel Reily. Her research is centered on traditional Brazilian music and children's music in Brazil and Latin America, for which she has conducted fieldwork in Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Cuba and Uruguay. She is the author of books, records, videos and articles related to the topic. In 2015, Silva received the Prize for Safeguarding the Intangible Heritage of the Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage. She is part of the Isso Mamma Group, part of the Childhood Music and Communication Laboratory - LAMCI, which belongs to the Center for the Study of Sociology and Musical Aesthetics - CESEM, at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. As a singer, Lucilene focuses on the repertoire of songs from popular Brazilian movements and has recorded several albums. She coordinates the Center for the Study and Dissemination of Children's Culture and the Center for the Training of Educators at the Oca Escola Cultural, a project developed within a community of immigrants in the greater São Paulo area. She is part of the association Casa das 5 Pedrinhas team founded by the ethnomusicologist Lydia Hortélio. She also works in the musical education of children and adolescents, with extensive experience in teacher training.

With a background in accounting and extensive experience in project management, Lucilene Silva is running for the position of Director of Membership and Finance. If elected for this position, she plans to collaborate on increasing the Latin American and Caribbean Music and Dance Study Group's reach; fundraising for meetings and seminars; and continuing with the group's multilingual mission. If elected, she will spare no effort to work as a team with executive board members in order to achieve the Study Group's goals as best as possible.