Profile
Wilson Valentín-Escobar, PhD (he/him/él) is an Assistant Professor of American Studies and Public Humanities. A first-generation college graduate who is also a product of New York City's public schools, Valentín is a scholar, professor, curator, and activist who hails from pre-gentrified Brooklyn. The son of a former public school janitor and homemaker, and raised in Brooklyn's Farragut Public Housing Projects by working-class Puerto Rican parents who migrated to New York City, his experiences of discrimination and invisibility shaped his intellectual and scholarly interests, pedagogical philosophy, as well as his commitment to transformative social justice.
Valentín is the author of two books: Bodega Surrealism: Latina/o/x Artivists in New York City (NYU Press, forthcoming) and Rican-Structing the Roots and Routes of Puerto Rican Music and Dance (Centro Press, forthcoming). He has curated numerous exhibits, including ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York, Montage Quotidien: The Photographs of Máximo Rafael Colón, and Power and Memory: 50 Years of Struggle, Shared Legacies of Resistance, among others. Valentín has also presented at national and international conferences, and has published his scholarship in academic refereed journals, book anthologies, and museum catalogs.
As an interdisciplinary scholar trained in the Critical Ethnic Studies tradition, he has long been committed to community engaged pedagogy and collaborative, transdisciplinary, public-facing scholarship that fosters praxis-oriented intellectual inquiry. His scholarship and teaching is at the intersections of various fields and subjects, including artivism (arts and activism), US Latinx Studies, Cultural Studies, Museum Studies, Performance Studies, Urban Studies, Historical Studies, Sociology, Aesthetics, and Oral History. He aims to create pathways for aesthetic innovation, arts-based civic engagement, community activism, community-based arts education, and multi/interdisciplinary arts that foster and hold space for socio-political and academic collaborations. Valentín believes that decolonial teaching practices and knowledge production are best realized within spaces of freedom and equity, allowing for creative and imaginative thinking beyond conventional paradigms and disciplines.
He teaches courses in Community Engagement and Social Action, US Ethnic Studies, Latina/o/x Studies, Puerto Rican Studies, Art and Activism, Oral History Theory and Methods, Self-Directed Learning, and Cultural Studies.
Before joining The New School, Valentín was an Associate Professor of American Studies and Sociology at Hampshire College (2004-2022), Director of the cross-campus Five College Latin, Caribbean and Latina/o/x Studies Program (2011-2018), and Director of the interdisciplinary Bachelor of Liberal Arts Program at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell (2019-2021).
Valentín is the recipient of various national and international fellowships, grants, and awards, including: a Postdoctoral Associate in the Program in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration at Yale University, an Andrew Mellon Fellowship at Columbia University, the George Washington Henderson Fellowship at the University of Vermont, the Fred C. Anderson Fellow in American Studies at Carleton College, the American Sociological Association Presidential Minority Fellowship, and a Periclean Faculty Leadership Program Grant from the Eugene Lang Foundation.
At the University of Michigan, he completed a PhD and MA in American Studies, as well as a MA in Sociology. He completed a Graduate Certificate in Oral History at Columbia University, and a BA in Sociology and Latinx Studies (with honors) at Fordham University.
Degrees Held
PhD, University of Michigan
MA, University of Michigan
MA, University of Michigan
Graduate Certificate, Columbia University
BA, Fordham University
Professional Affiliation
Current and Past Affiliations:
American Studies Association
American Sociogical Association
Latina/o/x Studies Association
Puerto Rican Studies Association
Latin American Studies Association
Oral History Association
New England Consortium of Latina/o/x Studies
Recent Publications
"Artistic Decoloniality as Aesthetic Praxis: Making and Transforming Imaginations and Communities in NYC, in Latinx Art in New York. Eds. Arlene Davila, Yasmin Ramirez, and Nestor David Pastor (Duke University Press, Forthcoming)
"The Young Lords and Los Gritos de Mañana: Revolutionary Pasts and Futures" in The Chicago Young Lords (Haymarket Press, Forthcoming)
Bodega Surrealism: The Emergence of Latina/o/x Artivists in New York City (NYU Press, Forthcoming)
Rican-Structing the Roots and Routes of Puerto Rican Music (Centro Press, Forthcoming)
"Listening to More than Salsa: A Letter of Appreciation to Dr. Frances R. Aparicio. Latino Studies 18.2 (2020): 269-276
"Presente!: The Young Lords in Loisaida," in Pasado y Presente: Art after the Young Lords, 1969-2019." The Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York, NY 2019
"Montage Quotidien: The Photographs of Máximo Rafael Colón." Puerto Rican Migration Then and Now Through the Lens of Contemporary Art, 1950-2019. Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, N.Y. 2019
"Power and Memory: 50 Years of Struggle, Shared Legacies of Resistance." Power and Memory: 50 Years of Struggle, Shared Legacies of Resistance. Hampshire College, Amherst, M.A. 2017
"¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York at the Loisaida Inc. Center" Co-Author with Libertad O. Guerra. ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York. Bronx Museum of the Arts, 2015
"Rejecting the Shadow: Steve Berrios, An Apache of the Skins, Discusses His Musical Influences, Latin Jazz Music, and the Significance of the Fort Apache Band." Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, 16.2 (Fall 2004): 184-193
"Memorializing La Lupe and Lavoe: Singing Vulgarity, Transnationalism, and Gender." Co-Author with Frances R. Aparicio. Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rcian Studies, 16.2 (Fall 2004): 78-101
Invited Guest Editor (with Juan Flores). Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies. Special Issue on Puerto Rican Music: Roots and Routes of Puerto Rican Music. Volume 16, Issues 1 and 2 (2004)
"El Hombre que Respira Debajo del Agua: Performing Memory and Diasporicity through the Death of Héctor Lavoe." 161-186. Situating Salsa: Global Markets and Local Meaning in Latin Popular Music. Ed by Lise Waxer. New York: Routledge, 2002
"Nothing Connects us all but Imagines Sounds: Performing Trans-Boricua Memories, Identities, and Nationalisms Through the Death of Héctor Lavoe." 207-233. Mambo Montage: The Latinzation of New York City. Co-Edited by Agustín Laó-Montes and Arlene Dávila. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001
Book Review. Puerto Rican Arrival in New York: Narrative of the Migration, 1920-1950. Juan Flores (ed). New West Indian Guide 83.1 (2009): 149-152
Book Review. From Afro-Cuban Rhythms to Latin Jazz. Raul Fernandez. Latino Studies 6.3 (Fall 2008): 348-354
EXHIBITIONS CURATED
Curator. Montage Quotidien: The Photographs of Máximo Rafael Colón. Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York. January – April 2019.
Co-Curator, with Amy Halliday and Pablo Delano. Museum of the Old Colony. Hampshire College Art Gallery, Amherst, MA. https://sites.hampshire.edu/gallery/the-museum-of-the-old-colony/ June 1 – November 11, 2018.
Co-Curator, with Chris Tinson, PhD. Power and Memory: 50 Years of Struggle, Shared Legacies of Resistance. Hampshire College, Amherst, MA. March 20 – April 26, 2017.
Co-Curator, with Libertad O. Guerra. ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York. Loisaida Inc. Center, New York, N.Y. Part of a simultaneous multi-venue exhibit at El Museo del Barrio and the Bronx Museum of the arts. July 30 – December 1, 2015.
Curator, The New Rican Spirit: New Rican Village Alumni Reunion, Roundtable, and Reception. Lower Eastside Girls Club. New York, N.Y. Nov 7, 2015
Performances and Appearances
"Artistic Decoloniality as Aesthetic Praxis: Latina/o/x Artivists Making and Transforming Imaginations and Communities in New York City." Nuyorican and Diasporican Art Conference. Latinx Project, New York University, November 2022.
“Presente, Proud y Sinvergüenza! The Activism of the Young Lords Through Organized Change.” Holyoke Community College, Holyoke, M.A. Oct 2021
“Nuyorican Performance and Aesthetics Now! American Studies Association Annual Conference. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Oct 2021
“Reimagining Latina/o/x and U.S. Ethnic Studies in the Academy.” Symposium in Honor of Frances Aparicio. Northwestern University, Chicago, IL. Dec 2019
“Subverting the Colonial Gaze in the Metropole Colony: The Photographs of Máximo Rafael Colón.” Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York. Mar 2019
“Los Gritos de Mañana: Revolutionary Pasts and Futures.” Young Lords Organization 50th Anniversary. DePaul University, Chicago, IL. Sep 2018
“Artivism and Decolonial Emancipation: Social Surrealism of the In-Between.” Diversity and Community Studies Series. Western Kentucky University. Bowling Green, KY. Mar 2018
“Public Art and Activism in U.S. Cities.” Featured Roundtable Discussion. American Studies Association Annual Conference. Chicago, IL. Nov 2017
“Spatial Movements in Puerto Rican/Latina/o/x Studies.” New England Consortium of Latin American Studies Annual Conference. Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. Nov 2016
“The Boricua 60s and 70s: Aesthetics and the Display of Radicalism, New York and Chicago USA.” Art Now! Biennial Conference. Chicago, Il. Panel Organizer and Moderator. Apr 2016
“‘J-Flo in the House!’ Reflections of the Legacy and Impact of Juan Flores’s Scholarship on Latina/o/x Studies and the Academy.” New York, N.Y. Latin American Studies Association Annual Conference. May 2016
“Political Emancipation Through Cultural Emancipation: Building a ‘New Rican Spirit’ Through the Cultural Activism of the New York Young Lords.” Smith College. Northampton, MA. Nov 2015
“Latina/o Americans in War and Peace, 1942-1954.” Presenter and Discussion Leader. Part of the PBS Latino Americans: 500 Years of History Series. St. Joseph University, West Hartford, Connecticut. Nov 2015
“The New Rican Spirit: New Rican Village Alumni Reunion Roundtable Discussion.” Lower Eastside Girls Club. New York, N.Y. (Organizer) Nov 2015
“The Cultural Significance of the Young Lords Party.” Presenter and Panel Member. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. “Black Freedom Studies Series.” New York, N.Y. Oct 2015
“Place-Making and Theatre(s) of Struggle in the Cultural Activism of the Young Lords Party of New York.” Knox College. Galesburg, Illinois. Oct 2015
“Place-Making in Holyoke through the Arts.” Five College Symposium on Community and Campus Partnerships in Holyoke. Holyoke, MA. Nov 2014
“Subjects for the Future: Latina/o/x Artivists Making and Transforming Community through ‘Art-Based’ Community Making.” Imagining Latina/o Studies: Past, Present, and Future Conference. Chicago, Il. Jul 2014
“Latina/o/x Artivism: Making and Transforming Community through Social Surrealist Art.” Symposium: Race and Place in the City: Turning Segregation into Congregation. Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, Brown University. Apr 2014
“Reflections of a Puerto Rican Working-Class Academic: Speaking Truth to Neo-Liberal Academics within the Academy.” Five College Asian Pacific American and Critical Ethnic Studies Symposium. Mount Holyoke College. Mar 2014
“Puerto Ricans, Citizenship, and Community Activism.” Smith College. Northampton, MA. Mar 2014
“A Nation Beyond Place: Boricua Heterotopias (Re)Envisioned Through Art.” 2nd Biennial Symposium: Puerto Rican Studies Association, Rutgers University. Newark, N.J. Oct 2013
“Nuyorican Surrealism: In the Streets and Beyond the Imagination.” Smith College. Northampton, MA. Apr 2013
“Artivism and Decolonial Emancipation: Social Surrealism of the In-Between.” Midwest American Studies Association. Oklahoma State University. Tulsa, OK. Mar 2013
“Reflections on the Puerto Rican Embassy: The Decolonial Artivism of Adál Maldonado and Mariposa Maria T. Fernandez.” American Studies Association Annual Conference. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Nov 2012
“Building a Diasporican Public: Cultural Activism through Public Arts Programming.” American Studies Association Annual Conference. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Nov 2012
“‘Papa, Not Dada': Puerto Rican Surrealism (Sur-Ricanism) Amidst the Shadows of New York City’s Elite Art World(s).” Grenada, Spain. Jun 2011
“Not Your Dada: Bodega Surrealism and El Puerto Rican Embassy in ‘Loisada,’ New York.” Critical Ethnic Studies and the Future of Genocide Conference. University of California, Riverside. Mar 2011
“Not Your Dada: Bodega Surrealism in Loisada.” Puerto Rican Studies Association Conference. Hartford, Connecticut. Oct 2010
“El Puerto Rican Embassy: Civic Agency, Cultural Interventions and Surrealist Counterpublics.” American Studies Association Annual Conference. Washington, D.C. Nov 2009
“Multiple Publics and Converging Aesthetics.” American Studies Association Annual Conference. Washington, D.C. Nov 2008
Keynote Address. “Teaching Puerto Rican Studies Through a Critical Ethnic Studies Paradigm.” Explorations in Puerto Rican Culture Summer Institute for Springfield, Massachusetts Public School Teachers. Massachusetts Cultural Council. Springfield, MA. Jul 2008
“Avant-Garde Latin Jazz Musicians: Social and Aesthetic Interventions.” Brandeis University. Waltham, MA. Oct 2007
“Freedomland at the New Rican Village: Latin Jazz Music, Bodega Surrealists, and the Making of a Latina/o Avant-Garde.” Caribbean Music and the Global Capital in the New Millennium Conference. University of Texas, Austin. Feb 2007
“Harlem with Palm Trees: The Jazz Mobile and the Cultivation of Circum-Atlantic Soundscapes.” International Oral History Association. Sidney, Australia. Jul 2006
Keynote Panel. “Maple Syrup con Salsa: Burlington’s Salsa Scene and the ‘New’ Spaces of Latinidad. Ethnic Studies Conference. University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont. Jun 2006
“The Multiple Sites of Salsa: New England Salsa Scenes.” Latin American Studies Association Conference. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Mar 2006
“Raising Voices, Transforming Spaces: Reflections on Latina/o Student Movements at the University of Michigan.” University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Sep 2005
“Performing Latinidad in New England.” Crossroads in the Studies of the Americas. Five Colleges, Inc. Amherst, MA. Mar 2005
“Avant-Garde Latin Jazz in New York City.” Latin American Studies Association Conference. Dallas, TX. Mar 2003
“‘The River is Deep, You Dig!’ Tensions Between Global and Local Discourses Surrounding Latin Jazz.” American Studies Association Annual Conference. Houston, TX. Oct 2002
“Colonial Discourses and Columbus Effect(s) in the Buena Vista Social Club Recordings.” Mellon Post-Doctoral & Pre-Doctoral Fellows Conference. Carleton College. Northfield, MI. Oct 2002
“From el Bronx to Loisaida: Avant-Garde Latin Jazz at the New Rican Village Cultural Arts Center.” Puerto Rican Studies Association Conference. Chicago, IL. Oct 2002
“The New Rican Village, Latin Jazz, and the Making of a Latina/o Avant-Garde Scene in New York City.” Popular Culture Association Annual Conference. Toronto, Canada. Mar 2002
“The Diaspora Strikes Back: Popular Memory and Diaspora Aesthetics in Latino Communities.” Fordham University at Lincoln Center. New York, N.Y. Apr 2002
“What is This Thing Called Latin Jazz?” University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dec 2001
“The New Latina/o Left and the Making of an Avant-Garde Latin Jazz Scene in New York City.” American Studies Association Annual Conference. Washington, D.C. Nov 2001
“‘Te Falta Azuquita en la Cintura:’ Colonial Discourses Surrounding the Buena Vista Social Club Recordings.” Latina/o Popular Culture(s) Conference. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor. Mar 2001
“Capturing Musician’s Narratives: The Politics & Poetics of Conducting Oral History Interviews with Latina/o Musicians.” University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Feb 2001
“The Latino Avant-Garde and the Formation of Latin Jazz in New York City.” Seminario Internacional: Latinos en los Estados Unidos en el Siglo XXI. University of Havana, Cuba. Dec 2000
“Memoria Resemantisada: Community Responses to the Deaths of Tito Puente and Héctor Lavoe.” The Fourth Puerto Rican Studies Conference. Amherst, MA. Oct 2000
“Marketing Memory/Marketing Authenticity in the Buena Vista Social Club Recordings.” XXII International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association. Miami, FL. Mar 2000
“Between Salsa and Jazz: The Latin Jazz Scene in New York City.” Center for African and African-American Studies. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor. Nov 1999
“Overshadowed and Inter-Musical: Latin Jazz in-between Birdland and S.O.B.’s.” American Studies Association Annual Conference. Seattle, WA. Nov 1998
“Nothing Connects Us All but Imagined Sounds: Memory, Identity(ies) and Nation-ness en la Muerte y Memorialización de Héctor Lavoe.” The Rhythms of Culture, Dancing to Las Américas: An International Conference on Popular Musics in Latin(o) America. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor. Mar 1997
“Memorializing Héctor Lavoe: Music and Memory in the New York Puerto Rican Community.” Oral History Association Annual Conference. Philadelphia, PA. Oct 1996
“Memorializing ‘La Lupe’ y ‘Lavoe’: Cultural Heroes and Popular Music in the Puerto Rican Community(ies).” With Dr. Frances R. Aparicio. The Second Puerto Rican Studies Conference. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Sep 1996
“What is Latina/o Studies?" Annual Midwest National Association of Chicana/o Studies Conference. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Oct 1995
“Salsa, the Nuyorican Renaissance and the Puerto Rican Young Lord’s Party.” American Sociological Association Annual Conference. Washington, D.C. Aug 1995
“From Salsa to Ketchup: Exploring Musical Changes in Salsa From the 1960s to 1980s.” Center for Research on Social Organization. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor. Mar 1995
“Ri(Can)structing Salsa in the Nuyorican Community: An Exploratory Analysis of Space, Constraints, and Resistance.” 5th Annual Students of Color of Rackham Conference. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor. Mar 1995
Some Past Workshops & Community Engagement
"Doing Oral History in Lowell, Massachusetts." Virtual Workshop. New York, NY. Spring 2023
“Art-Based Community Building through a Community-Based Art Exhibit.” New York, NY. Summer 2015
The New Rican Spirit: New Rican Village Alumni Reunion, Roundtable, and Reception. Lower Eastside Girls Club. New York, NY. Nov 2015
“Boricua Surrealism and Political Activism.” Amherst College at the Franklin County Detention Facility. Greenfield, MA. Apr 2014
“Salsa con Maple Syrup: Salsa Music Scenes in New England.” Burlington, VT. Spring 2004
“An Imperfect Storm: Citizen(ship) and Colonialism, Reflections on Teaching and Change-Making with Holyoke’s Puerto Rican Community During Hurricane Maria.” Amherst, MA. Spring 2018
“Empires and Citizenship: Teaching Puerto Rican Studies from a Circum-Atlantic Perspective.” Springield, MA. Summer 2007
“Teaching Latina/o Studies Across Multiple Intellectual Paradigms.” Five College Symposium on Latina/o & Latin American Studies. Amherst, MA. Feb 2010
“Memory, Power, and Diasporic Oppositional Consciousness in Latina/o Communities.” Nosotras Student Organization. Event Title: Nourishing our Roots: Latino Traditions Across the Diaspora. Smith College. Northampton, MA. Fall 2008
“Multiple Publics and Converging Aesthetics: Re-Performing ‘the City,’ From Loisada to the South Bronx.” Hampshire College, School of Critical Social Inquiry. Amherst, MA. Nov 2008
“The Poetics of Cultural Appropriation.” Lebrón-Wiggins-Pran Cultural Center, Hampshire College. Amherst, MA. Spring 2007
“Latin Jazz and the Radical De-Colonial Imaginary.” Amherst College. Amherst, MA. April 2006
“The Modernity of Latin Jazz.” Hampshire College. Amherst, MA. Nov 2005
“Playing Cuban: Columbus Effect(s) and Diasporic Disjuntures.” Lebrón-Wiggins-Pran Cultural Center, Hampshire College. Amherst, MA. Nov 2004
Research Interests
American Studies, Community Engagement and Social Action, Artivism (Arts and Activism), Critical U.S. Ethnic Studies, Latina/o/x Studies, Puerto Rican Studies, Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Performance Studies, Historical Studies, Sociology, Urban Studies, Jazz, Latin Jazz, Oral History, Arts-Based Research
Awards And Honors
GIDEST Faculty Fellowship (2023-2024), The New School
Periclean Faculty Leadership Program Grant, Eugene Lang Foundation
Postdoctoral Associate, Program in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, Yale University
CISA (Crossroads in the Study of the Americas) Faculty Fellow, Five College Consortium
Five College Faculty Fellow in Latina/o/x Studies, Five College Consortium
Andrew Mellon Fellowship, Columbia University
George Washington Henderson Fellowship, University of Vermont
Fred C. Anderson Fellow in American Studies, Carleton College
American Sociological Association Presidential Minority Fellowship
Rackham Merit Fellowship, University of Michigan
Teaching Fellow, Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan
Visiting Scholar, Bancroft Library, Oral History Center, University of California, Berkeley
Fellow, Tepoztlán Transnational History of the Americas, Tepoztlán, México
Best Dissertation Award in Latina/o/x Studies, Latin American Studies Association, 2012