Eli Mena

Elizabeth Castillo Mena (also known as Eli Mena) is a Ph.D. student in Ethnomusicology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include Afro-Dominican musics and media. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Advertising summa cum laude from Universidad Acción Pro-Educación y Cultura (UNAPEC) and her bachelor’s degree in Contemporary Music magna cum laude with a concentration on Composition, Arranging, Production, and Vocal Performance from Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU). She also studied Jazz Singing in the Hochschule für Musik und Theatre Hamburg, as part of the "ISAP" (International Student and Education Partnership) 2021-22.

Mena has been awarded by the Deutscher Akademischer Austiuschdienst (DAAD) and won the exhibition award from Centro de la Imagen in Santo Domingo in 2021. Some of her work as a composer and sound designer has been exhibited in the Galería Nacional de Bellas Artes and the Centro de la Imagen of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and at Paréntesis. Relatos desde la incertidumbre, an itinerant exposition at the Red de Centros Culturales de la Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID), premiered in El Salvador in September 2021, and exhibited in Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile and Nicaragua. She has also independently released her compositions "Gravity" (for jazz quintet), "Agua" (for string orchestra), and "Fuga nro. 2 en E Menor" (for string quartet).