sound. space. cities.
production. podcasting. pedagogy.
about.
i'm an associate professor, teaching stream, in the school of journalism and communication at carleton university. my research and teaching extends across the field of communication studies, and i have expertise in sound studies, cultural geography, and media production. my work has been presented at conferences and festivals internationally, and can be found in outlets such as sounding out! blog, TEDx, and tapuya: latin american science, technology, and society.
my work as an academic is informed by my time as a performing musician. in both toronto, canada and in havana, cuba, i studied privately with local musicians and performed with a variety of artists across a range of musical styles. my experiences as a performer fuelled my interest in cuban popular music, which evolved into a research project that explored the cultural resonance of some of the island’s most popular artists.
my doctoral research was also based in the city of havana, cuba, where a residency at fundación fernando ortiz supported a project on sound, listening, and urban citizenship. this work has been disseminated in in both written and audio media format, and it gave life to a media-based form of inquiry that is now an integral part of my teaching.
i deliver a range of courses in the communication and media studies program, including its two introductory courses (foundations + current issues), an upper-division media production workshop, and a special topics graduate course titled “sound, space, and the city”. i also produce (and host) a radio show called “the place of sound”, showcasing the work of students in the communication and media studies program.
view my faculty profile page here.
view my cv here (dec 2024).
media.
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online scholarship.
"“¡se bota el tanque!”: housing, infrastructure, and the sounds of water in Havana’s domestic spaces" tapuya: latin american science, technology, society; special issue titled “frail modernities: latin american infrastructures between repair and ruination” (2019)
"learning to listen: from the car stereo to the soundscape" iaspm canada (international association for the study of popular music), auto-musicologies series (2018)
"the sweet sounds of havana: space, listening, and the making of sonic citizenship" sounding out! blog (2015); it was subsequently selected as one of the top ten sounding out! posts of 2015
"toward a cultural phenomenology of mediated aural practices" interference: a journal of audio culture, 1(1), (2011) co-authored with collaborator and colleague dr. Milena Droumeva
"relocating the ear: a cross-cultural exploration of the electrified soundscape" sensorial investigations blog (2010) at www.sensorystudies.org
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audio production.
“the sweetest sound in the city” is an audio documentary and teaching exercise i produced for the open-source, online textbook titled “food studies: matter, meaning, movement” (2022)
“the place of sound”, a podcast/radio show that explores the relationship between sound and space; airing every other monday at 6:30pm EST on CKCU, campus radio (feb 2021 - present)
"“¡se bota el tanque!”: housing, infrastructure, and the sounds of water in Havana’s domestic spaces" is an audio documentary that was published alongside a written article in tapuya: latin american science, technology, society (2019)
"nonna's pasta", "nonna's easter eggs", and "fifty pairs of pants" are part of a series of audio portraits developed from extended interviews i conducted with my late maternal grandmother for an oral history project provisionally titled "the world in a voice" (in development)
"se bota el tanque" is a multimedia (audio/text-based) piece that was included in the "water works!" online exhibition on water-wheel.net (march, 2016)
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media coverage.
i was interviewed on two separate episodes of “friday special blend” (CKCU FM93.1) about my research and pedagogy in the field of sound studies (2022) [part one | part two]
my partner/collaborator Margaret MacAulay and i participated in the Association for Popular Music Education’s (APME) vlog series in a session that explored the topic of gender in popular music education (2022)
i was interviewed on an episode of “friday special blend” (CKCU FM93.1) along with Dr. Chiara Del Gaudio about our collaboration on the Urban Imaginaries Project (2022)
i was interviewed in episode 18, “new faces, sights and sounds” of post<riposte, the podcast of the school of journalism and communication at carleton university (2019)
i was interviewed on the Simi Sara Show (CKNW AM980) to discuss my (then upcoming) talk at the TEDxSFU | shift conference in vancouver (2017)
i was interviewed for a podcast/audio documentary titled "a short history of acoustic ecology" produced by Chris Wood, Camara Miller and Nathan Clarkson at the banff centre for arts and creativity (2013)
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public talks.
“storytelling with soundscapes” is a talk i delivered in the “negotiating digital space in culturally significant storytelling” webinar series organized by the Canadian Centre for Mindful Habitats (july, 2022)
"the sweetest sound in the city" is a talk i delivered at the TEDxSFU | shift conference in vancouver (november, 2017)
"the sounds of the city" is a talk i delivered at pechakucha new westminster vol. 16 (august, 2017) that was subsequently featured as the "presentation of the day" on www.pechakucha.org on september 1, 2017
"the world in a voice: an oral history of a southern italian migrant" is a talk i delivered at the italian sonorities and acoustic communities conference at CUNY in manhattan (april, 2017)
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selected musical performances.
"applying afro-cuban rhythms to the modern rock drumkit" was a drum clinic (performance/educational masterclass) presented by myself and toronto-based drummer Mike Taylor, hosted by drummer's choice in brampton, ontario (2009)
"house of frost" by beekeepers society was the lead single from our ep plastic on the furniture (2009)
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video production.
“making student work matter: reflections on building a course-based pedagogy project” is a screencast that has origins as a conference presentation for the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (2022)
“welcome to my online classroom” is an online workshop series delivered by faculty members at Carleton University; this video is a walk-through of my approach to online teaching and it was prepared in advance of a workshop that i hosted (december, 2020)
