{"id":377,"date":"2022-03-30T15:32:21","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T19:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?post_type=profile&p=377"},"modified":"2025-11-13T15:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T20:38:10","slug":"michael-birenbaum-quintero","status":"publish","type":"profile","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/about\/contact-directions\/directory\/michael-birenbaum-quintero\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Birenbaum Quintero"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Birenbaum Quintero<\/strong> studies Black cultural politics in Latin America. His work in Colombia examines the place of music in both the Afro-Colombian social movement and the cultural policy of the state under neoliberal multiculturalism; historical constructions of Blackness through music; sounded cosmology; vernacular Black music circulation and technology; violence and trauma; the affective politics of loudness and the genealogy of the Afro-Colombian intellectual tradition<\/p>\n

More recently he has turned to examining ritual soundscapes in Havana, New York City, and \u00d2\u0323y\u00f2\u0323 (Nigeria). He is looking at the place of Afro-Cuban religious drumming in New York City in forging politically salient Afrocentric self-identifications and intra-Diasporic interactions between New York Puerto Ricans, African-Americans, Afro-Cubans, and Africans. He has also published on music streaming algorithms and the affect of late capitalism.<\/p>\n

Beyond the academy, Prof. Birenbaum Quintero has directed a grassroots Afro-Colombian community music archive with the grassroots research collective ASINCh in Quibd\u00f3 (Choc\u00f3); designed cultural policy initiatives with the Colombian Ministry of Culture; taught Afro-Colombian youth leaders through the Manos Visibles foundation; performed traditional music and organized tours with Colombian musicians such as Grupo Naidy, Diego Obreg\u00f3n, Los Balanta, and maestro Gualajo; co-composed a PSA jingle for the Colombian census, appeared on the Afropop Worldwide podcast and NPR, and collaborated with the Afro-Colombian activist organization Proceso de Comunidades Negras and with Latinx, Black, Colombian, and working-class organizers in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

For more on Michael Birenbaum Quintero, visit <\/span>bu.academia.edu\/MichaelBirenbaumQuintero<\/a>.<\/p>\n

En espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed: ginc.univalle.edu.co\/investigadores\/michael-birenbaum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Publications<\/h5>\n
    \n
  • Rites, Rights, and Rhythms: A Genealogy of Musical Meaning in Colombia\u2019s Black Pacific<\/em>. New York: Oxford University Press (2018)<\/li>\n
  • \u201cMusic Streaming and the Algorithmic Subject.\u201d Sound and Affect, ed. Judith Lochhead, Steven Smith, Eduardo Mendieta. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (2021).<\/li>\n
  • \u201cLa audaz intelectualidad afro de Te\u00f3filo Potes [The Audacious Afro-Intellectualism of Te\u00f3filo Potes].\u201d Revista CS 30 (2020).<\/li>\n
  • \u201cLoudness and Excess, Sovereignty and Abjection in a Neoliberal Frontier Zone.\u201d Remapping Sound Studies, ed. Gavin Steingo and Jim Sykes. Durham: Duke University Press (2019)<\/li>\n
  • \u201cExchange, Materiality, and Aesthetics on Colombian champeta.\u201d Ethnomusicology Forum 23:3 (2018)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    Awards<\/h5>\n
      \n
    • Ruth Stone Prize (for most distinguished English-language monograph, published as the author\u2019s first monograph), Society for Ethnomusicology, 2020<\/li>\n
    • West African Research Association Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research in West Africa, 2020: \u201cSound, Music, and the Ear in Yor\u00f9b\u00e1 If\u00e1 Ritual, Cosmology, and Ethics\u201d<\/li>\n
    • Fulbright Core Scholar Grant. Doctoral Program in Afro-Latin American History, Society and Culture, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia, 2014<\/li>\n
    • Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow. \u201cConcepts of Diaspora.\u201d The Johns Hopkins University & Peabody Conservatory, 2009<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Affiliate faculty appointments at Boston University:<\/strong> Latin American Studies Program, African American Studies Program, African Studies Center, American and New England Studies Program<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14125,"template":"","bu_progs_degree-option":[],"dicipline":[125],"school":[133],"unit":[],"program":[153],"position":[123],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/377"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profile"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14125"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8484,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile\/377\/revisions\/8484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"bu_progs_degree-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_progs_degree-option?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"dicipline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dicipline?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"unit","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/unit?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"position","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/position?post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}