Bárbara Idalissee Abadía-Rexach 

I am a foodie with no tolerance to pepper and curry, and a music lover with two left feet. But I manage, as sociocultural anthropologist, to engage with both food and music. I study Blackness and racialization in Puerto Rico through popular culture with an emphasis on music which was my focus in my first book entitled: Musicalizando la raza. La racialización en Puerto Rico a través de la música (2012), and my doctoral dissertation: ¡Saludando al tambor! El nuevo movimiento de la bomba puertorriqueña (2015). I was born and raised in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. I have a B.A. in Communication (2001), and a M.A. in Theory and Research of Communication (2006) from the University of Puerto Rico. In 2015, I completed a Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology at The University of Texas at Austin. Since 2015, I’ve been Term Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras campus. I write an op-ed column at El Nuevo Día newspaper once a month.