Petra R. Rivera-Rideau

Petra R. Rivera-Rideau serves as an Assistant Professor of American studies at Wellesley College, specializing in critical race theory and cultural politics within Latin American and Caribbean contexts. Her work centers on Afro-Latinx experiences, transnational identities, and the sociocultural dimensions of music, particularly reggaetón.

Her research interests include:

• Race and Ethnicity in Latin America/Caribbean
• Afro-Latinx Studies
• Transnational Black Diaspora
• Cultural Politics of Music
• Social Movements and Blackness
• Gender in Afro-Latinx Communities

Her publications reveal a sustained scholarly focus on how race, music, and migration shape identity across the Americas. The 2016 co-edited volume examines transnational activism and Blackness, while the 2015 monograph analyzes reggaetón's role in Puerto Rico's racial discourse, collectively advancing critical race studies and Latinx cultural scholarship.