Michael Birenbaum Quintero

Michael Birenbaum Quintero serves as Associate Professor at Boston University with cross-disciplinary appointments in Musicology & Ethnomusicology, Latin American Studies, and African American Studies. His scholarly work centers on black Colombian communities in the Pacific region, investigating intersections of musical expression, cultural policy, and identity politics.

Dr. Quintero's research examines how blackness is framed through musical practices, state cultural policies, and social movement politics. He explores black cosmopolitanism, vernacular technology use in musical contexts, music circulation networks, and ontological distinctions between music as practice versus object. His investigations extend to ritual soundscapes and the politics of loudness within these communities, revealing complex relationships between sonic expression and cultural resistance.

His monograph Rites, Rights and Rhythms (2018) exemplifies his scholarly trajectory, tracing musical meaning in Colombia's Black Pacific through interconnected lenses of ritual, human rights, and rhythmic expression. This work demonstrates consistent engagement with ethnomusicological methods while bridging African diaspora studies, Latin American cultural analysis, and sound studies. His publications reveal thematic continuity in examining how musical practices serve as sites for negotiating cultural rights and black identity.