Juan Fernando Velasquez Ospina

Juan Fernando Velasquez Ospina is a postdoctoral scholar at the Michigan Society of Fellows and assistant professor (2019-2022) at the School of Music, Theater & Dance. His research intersects cultural history, postcolonial and sound studies to explore the multiple relations that exists between urban modernization and social formation processes, economic transformation, musical practice, and musical consumption in late-nineteenth and early twentieth century Colombia, bringing together questions about privilege, modernity, and ecologies of sound in Latin American postcolonial cities. His articles have been published in Artes la Revista: Revista de la Facultad de Artes de la Universidad de Antioquia, Boletin de Musica de Casa de las Américas, and Latin American Music Review. His book Los Ecos de la Villa: La música en las Publicaciones Periódicas de Medellín (1886-1903) won the Grant for Researching on Cultural Heritage of the Secretary of Culture of Medellin, Colombia (2012). Velasquez is completing his book manuscript “The Centennials: A Cultural and Social History of Music, Sound, Listening and Urban Modernization in Colombia (1886-1930)” and is beginning his second project “Equinoctial Noises: Ecological Crisis, Neoliberalism, and New Music in Latin America.”

A graduate from Eafit University in Medellín, Colombia (2005), Velasquez completed a Ph.D. Musicology with certificates in Cultural Studies and Latin American Studies at the University of Pittsburgh (2018). He also has been recipient of several grants and fellowships including the Andrew Mellon Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, the Fulbright-Mincultura grant, the Tinker Summer Field Research Fellowship, and the Fundación Carolina Fellowship, among other recognitions.