Lorena Alvarado

Lorena Alvarado is an Assistant Professor of Music and Performance Studies at the University of California, Merced, affiliated with the Global Arts Studies Program within the School of Social Sciences, Humanities & Arts. Her work bridges cultural studies, musicology, and critical race theory.

She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Culture and Performance from UCLA, and a B.A. in Modern Literature and Latin American/Latino Studies from UC Santa Cruz. Previously, she served as a Lecturer at the University of Houston and a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University.

Her research focuses on sentimiento—the emotional expression in Mexican and Latinx popular music—through figures like Lucha Reyes and Chavela Vargas. She interrogates nationalism, gender, and transborder identities in mid-20th to 21st century music. Key interests include:

• Performance of emotion in vernacular music
• Decolonial methodologies
• Intersection of music, literature, and poetry

Publications include chapters in Routledge Companion to Latina/o Media and the Cambridge History of Latina/o American Literature. Current work emphasizes affective labor in working-class immigrant musical traditions.