I am a foreign language teacher (English) and researcher in cultural studies, popular music studies, foreign language pedagogy, migration, human rights and other fields. I am Colombian, originally from Bogotá, but I currently reside in the municipality of Facatativá, moving between both places.
 
I have also worked as a freelance translator, translating legal, medical, academic and personal documents. Combining my interests in music and translation, I have translated lyrics for independent rock artists.
 
In addition, I am an aficionado guitarist, especially of "loud" music. I am passionate about music, video games, technology and everything related to visual images.

Research Areas

Popular Music Studies

I research the presence and cultural agency of music globally, specially in Latin America, and its role as a semantic container in political, cultural and sonic matters. I am particularly interested in "extreme music", such as metal and other genres that explore dissonance and visual grotesque. I consider music as a vehicle of symbolic and material communication that can transcend its sonic nature to produce plastic representations. I analyze these issues from multiple aesthetic-political levels.

I also examine in my academic work the notion of the popular in culture and music, questioning Eurocentric ideas about culture and its social impact.

Critical Pedagogies

My work in this area is based on my experience as a foreign language teacher and the reflections derived from it.I am interested in teacher training dynamics and socio-educational issues such as:

1. The possibilities of access to foreign language training.
2. The cultural capitals that facilitate the acquisition of linguistic knowledge in certain social strata as opposed to others.
3.Reflection on the colonial origin of foreign language teaching and the contemporary commodification of linguistic knowledge.

Human Rights and Migration

I am interested in the migratory flows in Latin America caused by authoritarian regimes, the lack of protection of human rights, as well as other reasons why people decide to emigrate. These migration flows to the global north and other countries in the region face significant challenges, including the status of "migrant" or "undocumented" and the consequent denial of human rights.

I investigate the characterization of these contemporary migrations, the social challenges faced by migrants in their new destinations, in their places of origin and in the "non-places" of migrant transit, as well as the collective and subjective political stakes behind these courageous transits.

 

Education

Master in Cultural Studies
Cum Laude Degree
Xaverian Order of Academic Merit
Pontifical Xaverian University
Bogotá, Colombia
2022

Degree in Modern Languages
Pontifical  Xaverian University 
Bogotá, Colombia
2016