UC Berkeley’s Division of Arts & Humanities is pleased to welcome professor Juan David Rubio Restrepo as of July 1, 2023. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Music and specializes in Chicanx music culture and history.
Originally from Colombia, Rubio Restrepo’s research interests include theories of the human; decolonial theory; media studies; cultural and ethnic studies; critical theory; studies of music and sound; ethnomusicology; and Latin American, Chicanx, Caribbean and African-American thought. He is currently using multi-sited archival research and auto/ethnography in his current book project, which focuses on placing the music and figure of Ecuadorian singer Julio Jaramillo in a dialogue with popular music in its literal translation. In his own creative pursuits, he has performed at Angel City Jazz Festival; Festival Internacional de la Imagen; Festival Altavoz; and the Rock al Parque and Jazz al Parque festivals.
Rubio Restrepo earned his BMus in jazz studies and drumkit performance from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia, before studying in California, where he received his MFA in integrated composition, improvisation, and technology from UC Irvine and Ph.D. in music with a focus on integrative studies from UC San Diego. Most recently, he has served as an interdisciplinary scholar in the University of Texas at El Paso’s Department of Music and Chicano Studies program.