The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded 91吃瓜 anthropologist 聽a聽long-term residential fellowship at the in Chicago.
During the nine-month fellowship, Ch谩vez will work on a second book project, tentatively titled Audible City: Urban Cultural History, Latinx Chicago, and the Sonic Commons, that聽explores the relationship between sound and the city of Chicago.
In particular, Ch谩vez is focusing on the connection between aurality and Latinx claims to citizenship in urban contexts, in particular, how sound-making, hearing聽and listening form a nexus of聽 common social recognition.
鈥淚 am interested in the history of Chicago鈥檚 built environment, particularly the formation of its neighborhoods, which this project interprets as a series of auditory and cultural palimpsests; the historical emergence of Chicago鈥檚 cultural aesthetics; and the sonic dimensions of Latinx forms of cultural production that stake claims of belonging in the city,鈥� said Ch谩vez, the Nancy O鈥橬eill assistant professor of anthropology and a faculty fellow at聽the .听
The fellowship gives Ch谩vez access to Chicago鈥檚 Newberry Library, an independent research library dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge in the humanities with 1.6 million books, 5 million pages of manuscripts聽and 600,000 maps in its collections.
鈥淐hicago鈥檚 neighborhood guides, genealogies聽and local histories at the Newberry will be key in tracing both the complex history of Chicago鈥檚 urban development and its social aesthetic, all of which is bound up with sound in one way or another,鈥� Ch谩vez said.听
鈥淭his project calls for an integration of sound studies and an anthropology of placemaking that works toward a perspective on Latinx urbanism. This disciplinary crossing is what access to the Newberry Library collections will make possible at this stage in my research.鈥�
Chavez鈥檚 first book, , took an in-depth look at Mexican migrants鈥� cultural expression through music. It received , including winning the Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology Book Prize, the Association for Latina and Latino Anthropologists Book Award聽and the Alan P. Merriam Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology.
Originally published by at on April 15, 2020.