Publications

Available Online:

You can get information about some of my publications, and sometimes the entire document, online.

  • My introduction to a special issue of the Journal of American Folklore entitled "Latin American dance in transnational contexts," which I also co-edited with Katherine Borland. Table of contents and full text available on Project Muse
  • My book, From Quebradita to Duranguense: Dance in Mexican American Youth Culture.
  • This book was awarded a special citation of the De La Torre Bueno Prize by the Society for Dance History Scholars in 2008. Here is what the award committee had to say:
    "In exploring the emerging socio-cultural implications of Mexican American popular
    music and dance forms, ethno-musicologist Sydney Hutchinson provides an insightful
    and enjoyable exploration of an otherwise ignored youth culture. By addressing
    the popular phenomenon as critically relevant to dance studies, the text places
    youth imperatives at the center of a world teeming with social interaction worthy
    of attention, and in the process, brings forward important discussions of race,
    class, gender, sexuality, age, and location. Through her descriptive analysis,
    Hutchinson evokes vivid images of the varied pleasures of dancing to the overlapping
    repertoires of the popular forms of Mexican music. Her careful arrangement of
    musicological analyses, ethnographic rendering, historical overview, and gently-crafted
    depiction of theoretical implications surrounding the dance offer a model of
    balance for dance writing."
  • My latest, an article on Santiago carnival: "How you can become a pig and lose weight too"
  • My first article ever, Pinto Güira and His Magic Bullet: A Dominican Instrument Maker in Queens
  • A PDF of "Mambo on 2: The birth of a new form of dance in New York City," in the CENTRO Journal, Center for Puerto Rican Studies
  • Multimedia presentation, "Danced politics and quebradita aesthetics," in e-misférica journal
  • A Midnight Serenade, a little description of my fieldwork on merengue tipico which I wrote for Folkways Magazine

  • Also, while it's not actually online, you could always buy a copy of Dancing Across Borders, a collection in which you'll find my essay "The Ballet Folklorico de Mexico and the Construction of the Mexican Nation Through Dance."
  • Likewise, my chapter entitled "Places of the Body: Corporeal displacements, misplacements, and replacements in music research" recently came out in the book titled Music and Displacement: Diasporas, mobilities, and dislocations in Europe and beyond, edited by Erik Levi and Florian Scheding. Visit the book at Scarecrow Press or order it from Amazon.

Sorry, not available online:

Here are some other things I've written, organized by publicaition year. Those that are about merengue típico are in bold for your convenience, you típico fans! (Several items on típico which are available online are listed above)

In Progress: Please click on “projects” above for what I’m currently working on.

Forthcoming

  • Book chapter. “Breaking borders / quebrando fronteras: Dancing in the borderscape.” In Transnational Encounters. Music and Performance at the U.S.-Mexico Border, ed. Alejandro Madrid. Oxford University Press.
  • Book chapter. “No ma’ se oye el fuinfuán: The noisy accordion in the Dominican Republic.” In The accordion on new shores, ed. Helena Simonett. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
  • Book chapter. “Places of the body: Corporeal displacements, misplacements, and replacements in music research,” In European music and displacement, eds. Erik Levi and Florian Scheding. Scarecrow Press.
  • Article. “Típico, folklórico, or popular? Musical categories, space, and place in transnational Dominican communities,” Popular Music.
  • Encyclopedia entries. “Merengue,” “Bachata,” “Quebradita,” “Dominican American Music,” “Juan Luis Guerra,” “Wilfrido Vargas, “Milly Quezada,” and “Johnny Ventura.” Grove Dictionary of American Music, Charles Garrett and Alejandro Madrid, eds. 
  • Book review, Black rhythms of Peru by Heidi Carolyn Feldman and Creating our own by Zoila Mendoza. Dance Research Journal.

 

2009

  • Book chapter. “The Ballet Folklórico de México and the construction of the Mexican nation through dance.” 2009. In Dancing across borders: Danzas y bailes mexicanos, eds. Olga Nájera-Ramírez, Brenda Romero, and Norma Cantú. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 206-225.
  •  Article. “Introduction,” Special Issue, “Latin American Dance in Transnational Contexts.” Journal of American Folklore 122(486).
  • Published conference paper. “Country noise in city spaces: Rereading the organology of Dominican merengue típico.” In Studia Instrumentorum Musicae Popularis I (New Series). [Proceedings of the ICTM Folk Musical Instruments Study Group Meeting, Erkner, Germany, May, 2009.] Gisa Jaennichen, ed. Münster: MV-Wissenschaft.
  • Book review, Mexican national identity by William Beezley. Western Folklore, 68(1): 73-74.

 

2008

  • Dissertation. Merengue típico in transnational Dominican communities: Gender, geography, migration and memory in a traditional music. New York University. Please EMAIL ME using the "contact" link above if you would like a copy. Beware - it is a 700-page monster!
  • Article. “Becoming the tíguera: Female accordionists in Dominican merengue típico,” World of Music, 50(3): 37-56.
  • Published conference paper. “El furioso merengue que ha sido nuestra historia: A critical look at historical sources for the study of Dominican merengue típico.” In Proceedings of the ICTM Historical Sources Study Group Meeting, Stockholm, May, 2008. Susanne Ziegler, ed.
  • Published conference paper. “Bailando en su lugar: Cómo los salseros crean variantes locales de un baile global.” 2008. In El son y la salsa en la identidad del Caribe, Dario Tejeda and Rafael Emilio Yunen, eds. Proceedings of the Primer Congreso de Música, Identidad, y Cultura en el Caribe. Santiago: Centro León; INEC.

 

2007

  • Popular article. “From cockfights to car washes: Merengue típico in Santiago.” 2007. Transitions Abroad, July/August, pp. 14-15.
  • Book review, Performing folklore: Ranchos folclóricos from Lisbon to Newark, by Kimberly DaCosta Holton. 2007. Western Folklore 66(1-2).

 

2006

  • Article. “Merengue típico: Transnational regionalism and class transformations in a neotraditional Dominican music.” Ethnomusicology 50(1):37-72.
  • Article. “Quebradita y el pasito duranguense: Dos bailes que cruzan fronteras.” Revista Dominicana de Antropología.
  • Published conference paper. “El merengue típico en Santiago y Nueva York: una música tradicional y transnacional.” In El Merengue en la cultura dominicana y del Caribe, Dario Tejeda and Rafael Emilio Yunen, eds. Proceedings of the Primer Congreso de Música, Identidad, y Cultura en el Caribe. Santiago: Centro León; INEC.
  • Article. “Cuando un baile se convierte en el baile: Algunas notas sobre bailes nacionales y los ballets folklóricos en América Latina.” Revista Dominicana de Antropología.
  • Book review essay, “Three works on mariachi origins.” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture vol. 35

2004

  • Encyclopedia entries. “Merengue” (pp.538-541), “Quebradita” (651-654), “Narcocorridos” (579-582), “Bandas” (57-60). In Encyclopedia of Latino Popular Culture, Cordelia Chávez-Candelaria et al, eds. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishers. (Irrelevant lines on Fulanito added by editors without author’s permission.)
  • Encyclopedia entries. “Music and dance of Mexican Americans in the Pacific states.” In Pacific Regional Cultures. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishers.
  • Popular article. “Rural merengue in urban Queens: Típico communities in Ozone Park, Woodhaven, and Corona.” Urban Folk 1(3): 3-16.
  • Book review, Gesture, gender, nation by Mary Masayo Doi. Journal of American Folklore 117(464).
  • Book review, Chicana traditions, eds. Norma Cantú and Olga Nájera-Ramírez. Journal of American Folklore 117(464).

 

2003

  •  Article. “Confessions of a public sector ethnomusicologist.” Folklore Forum 34:1-9.
  • Encyclopedia entry. “Folklore.” In Peoples of North America, Dennis Cove, ed. London: Brown Partworks, Ltd.
  • Popular article. “Juan Francisco Torres.” Latin Long Island Jan/Feb: 8, 49

 

2000-2002

  • CD review, Lord Invader, Calypso in New York & Calypso Awakening. World of Music 44(1).
  • CD review, Fiesta de la Candelaria, Tlacotalpan, Veracruz. Folklore Forum 32(1/2): 111-13
  • Book review, Dictionary of Chicano folklore, by Rafaela G. Castro. Journal of Folklore Research
  • Book review, Dance in Cambodia, by Toni Samantha Phim and Ashley Thompson. Journal of Folklore Research.
  • Book review, Seize the dance! BaAka musical life and the ethnography of performance, by Michelle Kisliuk. Journal of Folklore Research.
  • Book review, The big drum ritual of Carriacou: Praisesongs in rememory of flight, by Lorna McDaniel. Folklore Forum 31(2):123-124.