Regionalism in Contemporary Cuban Society and Music
Drawing on over a decade of research conducted in various Cuban cities, Rebecca Bodenheimer will discuss regionalism in contemporary Cuban society and its manifestation in popular dance music. Her book Geographies of Cubanidad: Place, Race, and Musical Performance in Contemporary Cuba, examines the intersections of race and place in the performance of various musical genres, both popular and folkloric. While regionalism is a pervasive issue in Cuba, both historically and in the contemporary moment, it has gone largely unexplored in academic research on and off the island. However, regionalist antagonism is particularly apparent in Havana, which has been the destination of migrants from various provinces, especially from eastern Cuba.
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Speaker Bio
Dr. Rebecca Bodenheimer is an ethnomusicologist and independent scholar who has conducted fieldwork in Cuba since 2004, examining the contemporary performance of rumba and a range of other Afro-Cuban folkloric and popular musical styles. Her book Geographies of Cubanidad: Place, Race, and Musical Performance in Contemporary Cuba was published in 2015 by the University Press of Mississippi. Dr. Bodenheimer received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 2010.