David Font-Navarrete

David Font-Navarrete is an Associate Professor in the Department of Music, Multimedia, Theatre and Dance at Lehman College, City University of New York (CUNY), and a member of the doctoral faculty in Music at the CUNY Graduate Center. His work bridges ethnomusicology, avant-garde art, and multimedia technologies, with field research conducted in Cuba, Senegal, the Gambia, and the United States.

His educational background includes:

• B.A. from Antioch College
• M.A. from the University of Maryland
• Ph.D. from York University

Font-Navarrete's research centers on the confluence of Afro-Atlantic cultural traditions, avant-garde art, and ethnography, with additional focus on cultural archives and multimedia technologies. His work often explores the intersections of music, religion (particularly Orisha traditions), and digital media, contributing to discourses on cultural representation and the global music south.

His publications span diverse venues and reflect a commitment to interdisciplinary inquiry, with recent work examining Afro-Cuban liturgy, translation in ethnomusicology, and the amplification of marginalized voices through sound. Themes of authenticity, cultural appropriation, and the role of technology in preserving and transforming musical traditions recur throughout his scholarship.

He has received notable support for his research through several competitive awards:

• PSC-CUNY Award and CUNY Research Foundation Grant
• US Latino Digital Humanities Grant-in-Aid (with Martin Tsang) from Arte Público Press and University of Houston
• Gerald E. and Corinne L Parsons Fund for Ethnography Award from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress
• Library Travel Grant from multiple institutions including the Díaz-Ayala Collection and Florida International University Libraries
• Wayne Shirley Fellowship from the Society for American Music

As a doctoral faculty member at the CUNY Graduate Center, Font-Navarrete mentors PhD candidates in Music. His current projects include an annotated English translation of Lydia Cabrera's El Monte, an edition of the Cabrera-Tarafa Collection, and a monograph titled Art at the Edge of Tradition: Notes on Orisha, Music, and the Age of Multimedia. These projects underscore his dedication to preserving and interpreting Afro-Cuban musical heritage through innovative scholarly and multimedia approaches.

No specific laboratory or research team is mentioned in the provided text, though his collaborative projects (e.g., with Martin Tsang) indicate a network of interdisciplinary partnerships.