Yana Stainova

Yana Stainova is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at McMaster University and will serve as a Visiting Research Scholar and Visiting Professor at Princeton University's Program in Latin American Studies in Spring 2026. She earned her Ph.D. from Brown University and is an interdisciplinary scholar focusing on art, migration, and the lived experience of violence in Latin America.

• Education: Ph.D., Brown University

Her research examines how musical practices enable marginalized communities to critique and transcend oppressive systems. Her ethnographic work in Venezuela, particularly within the El Sistema program, explores the intersections of urban violence, state repression, and musical enchantment as tools for agency.

Scientific Awards:

• Co-winner of the Edie Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing (2022)
• Winner of the Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology Book Prize (2021)
• Winner of the Labrecque-Lee Book Award (2021)

Stainova’s work has been published in journals such as Current Anthropology, Anthropology and Humanism, and Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies. Her book Sonorous Worlds: Musical Enchantment in Venezuela (University of Michigan Press, 2021) has received critical acclaim for its innovative approach to understanding music’s role in sociopolitical resistance.