J.A. Strub

J.A. is a researcher, educator, performer, and consultant on cross-cultural programming across the Americas. Residing between Austin, Texas, and Xalapa, Veracruz, J.A. is actively engaged in diverse scholarly, artistic, and community-based initiatives in both countries. He advises several internationally-recognized organizations on cultural education projects and socially-oriented research collaborations. J.A.'s approach to university teaching foregrounds skill-building, creative expression, and exercises in critical thinking. He employs Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and participatory classroom methods to create an educational space that is accessible to all. Exploring the relationships between music, technology, and wellbeing in Latin America, his recent book ¡Maldito Coronavirus!: Mapping Latin American Musical Responses to the Pandemic Moment offers the first comprehensive study of musical responses to the COVID-19 pandemic across the region. His dissertation project, La Ciberhuasteca: DIY Documentarians, Diasporic Audiences, and Emergent Territories of the Digital Huapanguero, highlights the work of independent entrepreneurs in the Huasteca region of Mexico who use user-generated platforms to reach audiences in diaspora and generate income outside of conventional cultural institutions. J.A. is also involved in many community oriented collaborations that seek to educate wider publics on cultural expression throughout Latin America. He is the organizer and founder of the Encuentro de Saberes y Sabores de la Huasteca, an interdisciplinary gathering of cultural actors, researchers, and educators that foregrounds Indigenous knowledge on music, foodways, language, and social organization. A student of the Afro-Mexican son jarocho tradition, J.A. has raised over $18,000 for instrument purchases and class instruction in support Austin's community of fandangueros.