We invite you to join us as we celebrate the inaugural lecture of the Norton Family Professorship in Music by Edwin Porras.

5:45 pm Reception

Allen C. Fisher 1959 Atrium, Roberts Hall

6:30 pm Lecture: Who is the Corneta China? Exploring the Life and Musical Career of an Afro-Chinese Cuban Musical Instrument

Michael Jaharis Recital Hall, Roberts Hall

Dr. Edwin E. Porras is the Norton Family Assistant Professor in Music at Haverford College. He earned a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2020, where he specialized in Latin American musical cultures of the African and Asian diasporas. Thematically, Edwin is interested in issues of power at the intersection of class, race, and gender, as well as in applied ethnomusicology and social justice. His dissertation "Music-Making Practices of Cubans of Chinese and African Descent: Creating Alternative Ways of Being and Belonging" unearths a less-known but fascinating facet of Cuban musical history. As a postdoc, he worked for the Smithsonian Institute and served as adjunct professor at California Institute of the Arts, UCLA, and California State University, Los Angeles. He is currently working on his first monograph and preparing to conduct multi-sited research on the music of Asian diasporas in Perú, Mexico, Panama, and Costa Rica.
 
The Norton Family Professorship in Music was made possible thanks to the generosity of former Board of Managers member Christopher K. Norton '80 P'08 P'11, and his wife Elizabeth Carter Norton P'08 P'11.