About

MA, Université de Rennes 2
MA & PhD, University at Albany, SUNY

I am an ethnic studies and cultural studies scholar interested in Hip-Hop culture. Broadly, my work examines the cultural production and the experiences of cultural empowerment in Hip-Hop with a transnational focus connecting New York City and the Dominican Republic. I employ ethnographic qualitative methods, visual and cultural production analysis as well as archival work to highlight how Hip-Hop artists navigate the cultural politics of Blackness and Latinidad.

Among different research projects, I primarily focus on a book manuscript in progress entitled: Scratchin’ Preconceptions: Transnational Hip-Hop among Dominicans between New York City and the Dominican Republic. There, I intend to document Dominicans’ historical input into Hip-Hop, in a field where they have been left out despite significant contributions. In addition, I look at the early development of Hip-Hop culture in the Dominican Republic in the late 1970s and 1980s, as a result of New York Dominican Hip-Hop artists’ visits to the island. Overall, the book seeks to contribute to a nuanced understanding about ethno-racial identities within and without Latinidad and Blackness, in a transnational context.