Dr Patria Roman-Velazquez
Lecturer
Email: P.Roman-Velazquez@city.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7040 8847
Overview
Dr Roman-Velazquez was awarded a Ph.D. from Leicester University in 1996 and completed her BA and MA at the University of Puerto Rico where she taught for three years before joining City in 1999.
She has taught in the areas of communication and cultural studies, urban cultures, media analysis and ethnographic research.
She has published articles in a number of journals and edited collections and is the author of The Making of Latin London: Salsa Music, Place and Identity (Ashgate 1999).
Research interests
Dr Roman-Velazquez's background and circumstances account for her research profile and interests to date, from the salsa clubs of London and the streets of Old San Juan (Puerto Rico) to the numerous libraries and archives in England. The geographical points of reference have shifted in relation to the geographical context in which she has been located during her academic career. Her interest in urban cultural practices derives from her background in Communication and Media Studies.The above themes can be found in her approach to salsa clubs and Latin Americans in London, with an emphasis on diasporas, music, place and identity. It also appears in her research about the regulation of the nocturnal city and consumption practices in San Juan, this time with an emphasis on urban cultural policy and its impact upon the character of the nocturnal street. It appears again when exploring the night as a site of consumption in late 19th century London, in this instance focusing on the relationship between time, place, consumption and technology. Her research methodologies have also shifted from undertaking ethnographic research (an active participant of night life cultures) to doing archival research about the night. She welcomes research in any of these areas.
She is Vice-Coordinator of the Communication & the City group of the Association of Latin American Communication Researchers (ALAIC). She has been a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Popular Music Studies, Blackwell, USA since February 1998, and a member of the International Advisory Board for City Analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy and action, Routledge, UK since August 2005. She is also an Associate Fellow at the Institute for the Studies of the Americas, School of Advanced Studies, University of London.
Specialism: Communication and the City, Place, Identity, Latin Americans in London, Ethnography, Semiotics.
Teaching
Undergraduate: Media, Cities & Culture / Circuits of Culture / Introduction to Media StudiesPostgraduate: Communication, Culture & Development / Globalisation & the City / Approaches to Social Research / Issues in Media Studies
Publications
Books
The Making of Latin London: Salsa Music, Place and Identity (1999) Ashgate.Journal special issues
Guest Editor, Special Issue 'Crossing Borders: Music of Latin America' Popular Music 30(2), Cambridge UP (2011).Refereed journal articles
Latin American Urban Cultural Studies: Unique texts, ordinary cities (2011), Westminster Papers in Communication & Culture, Vol 8 No 1. Special Issue: Re-visiting Latin American Cultural and Media Studies U of Westminster, pp131-153. (Co-authored with Alejandra Garcia-Vargas).
Hay que traer espacio a la vida. Entrevista con Doreen Massey (Incorporating Space into Life: An Interview with Prof. Doreen Massey) (2008). Vol.XXVII No. 53 Signo y Pensamiento, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia, pp327-343 (with Alejandra Garcia-Vargas).Ciudades ordinarias: Entrevista con J. Robinson (Ordinary Cities. An Interview with Dr. Jennifer Robinson). (2006). No. 12-13. Población y sociedad, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina (with Alejandra Garcia-Vargas).
La migración Latinoamericana hacia Londres y transfromaciones del espacio urbano (Latin American migration to London and transformations of urban spaces) (2005), Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos, CEMLA: Argentina, 18(54): 339-355.
Belonging and detachment: musical experience and the limits of identity (2002), Poetics. Journal of empirical research on culture, the media and the arts, Vol.29 issues 2-3, Elsevier Publishers, Holland and US. (with Dr. Keith Negus, Goldsmiths College).
La noche y el control de la vida citadina: reflexiones sobre el Código de Orden Público del Viejo San Juan (Night and control of urban life: reflections on the Code of Public Order for Old San Juan), Revista de Ciencias Sociales, No. 10 (January 2001) Nueva Epoca, Puerto Rico, pp. 34-56.
The embodiment of salsa: Musicians and the performance of a Latin style and identity (January, 1999). Vol. 18 No. 1, Popular Music, England: Cambridge University Press, 115-132.
El desarrollo de un circuito salsero y la construcción de identidades latinas en Londres (The development of a salsa scene and the construction of Latin identities in London), Revista de Ciencias Sociales, No. 4 (1998) Nueva Epoca, San Juan: Puerto Rico, 53-79.
Chapters in books
Más allá de la aldea global: Reflexiones sobre lugar e identidad (Beyond the global village: reflections on place and identity) (2010) in A. Garcia-Vargas (Ed), Ciudad. San Salvador de Jujuy como texto, Argentina: Editorial U Nacional de Jujuy.Latin Americans in London and the Dynamics of Diasporic Identities (2009), in James Procter, Michelle Keown & David Murphey (Eds) Comparing Postcolonial Diasporas, Palgrave, Macmillan (ISBN: 978-0-230-54708-7 // ISBN-10: 0-230-54708-7).
Night, Control and Consumption in Old San Juan (2008) in A. Cronin & K. Hetherington (Editors), Consuming the Entrepreneurial City: Image, Memory, Spectacle, USA: Routledge (with a preface by Sharon Zukin).
The embodiment of salsa: Musicians and the performance of a Latin style and identity (2005) in J. Post (Editor), Ethnomusicology Reader, USA: Routledge.
On the relationship between identity and territory (published in Spanish) (2005) in S. Alvarez Curbelo (Ed), Comunicación, Democracia y Ciudadanía, University of Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican Humanities Foundation, Puerto Rico, pp185-193.
Locating salsa (2002) in Popular Music Studies, K. Negus and D. Hesmondhalgh (eds), Arnold, England, pp210-222.
The making of a salsa music scene in London (2002), in Lise Waxer (Ed), Situating Salsa: Global markets and local meanings in Latin popular music, USA: Routledge, 259-287.
Globalisation and Cultural Identities (2000), in Mass Media & Society, 3rd edition, James Curran and Michael Gurevitch (Eds), Arnold, UK, pp329-345 (with Prof. Keith Negus, Goldsmiths College).
Salsa musicians and the performance of a Latin style and identity (1998), in Popular Music: Intercultural interpretations, Toru Mitsui (Ed.), Kanasawa University Press, Japan, pp383-390.
Participating in creating the event: The power-geometry of salsa music clubs in London (1998) in Music on Show: Issues of Performance, Tarja Hautamäqui & Helmi Järviluoma (Eds.), Tampere University, Finland, pp281-284.
Discotheques in Puerto Rico: Salsa vs. Rock (1995) in Popular Music: Style and Identity, Straw, W., S. Johnson, R. Sullivan and P. Friedlander (Eds), Canada, Montreal: Centre for Research on Canadian Cultural Industries and Institutions, pp285-291.
Other publications
Book Review of Regulating the night. Race, Culture and Exclusion in the Making of the Night-time Economy by Deborah Talbot, Aldershot: Ashgate. Published in Ethnic and Racial Studies 31(7): 1354-55, London: Routledge (2008).Book Review of Dropping anchor, setting sail: Geographies of race in black Liverpool (2005) by Jacqueline Nassy Brown, Princeton UP. Published in American Journal of Sociology 111(6): 1984-1985, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2006).
Book Review of Reproducing empire: Race, sex, science, and U.S. imperialism in Puerto Rico (2002) by Laura Briggs, University of California Press. Published in Ethnic and Racial Studies 27(4): 660-685, London: Routledge (2004).
Book Review of Understanding Media Culture (1999) by Jostein Gripsurd, (London: Arnold, 2002). Published in Journalism 4(4): 507-08, London: Sage (2003).
Book Review of Television de proximidad en Europa. Experiencias de la descentralizacion en la era digital (1999) by M. de Moragas Spa, C. Garitaonadia, B. López (Eds), Aldea Global, Barcelona. Published in European Journal of Communication.