UW-Madison professors Aurora Santiago Ortiz and Jorell Meléndez-Badillo recently established a Puerto Rican Studies Hub on campus, with the help of a $3 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The Puerto Rican Studies Hub aims to create a space where scholars, community members and students can unite and consider wide connections of Puerto Rican studies, according to associate professor of Latin American and Caribbean history and co-director of PRSH Jorell Meléndez-Badillo.
“We use Puerto Rico to understand broader social phenomena,” Meléndez-Badillo said.
Meléndez-Badillo said this Midwestern hub is beneficial to think about these conversations at a local, national and international level.
According to PRSH co-director Aurora Santiago Ortiz, PRSH is an initiative designed to enhance the field of Puerto Rican studies and connect the university with the wider community by providing programming, mentoring and other various opportunities.
“The community response thus far has been very positive,” Santiago Ortiz said. “I can envision this hub connecting people across different backgrounds and different areas of the UW community.”
According to Meléndez-Badillo, PRSH is divided into three parts. The first part includes knowledge production opportunities through the Francisco Scarano Lecture series, an annual symposium and mentorship workshops for junior scholars. The second part features fellows, including six scholars and two artists, as well as other opportunities for graduate students.
Santiago Ortiz said the third component is a fully funded study away program next summer for twelve students, focusing on Puerto Rican history for two weeks, followed by exploring research methods for two weeks.
Meléndez-Badillo discussed their cultural series, involving events catered towards the UW and Madison community. Meléndez-Badillo said their first event of this series happened Monday, Oct. 13, with Los Pleneros de La Cresta, a plena group from Puerto Rico.
Meléndez-Badillo said after Los Peneros de La Cresta played a few songs and discussed their cultural work in Puerto Rico, they distributed instruments to the audience, inviting them to learn about the history of plena, an Afro-Caribbean rhythm.
“Plena is usually not played in these sorts of academic spaces,” Meléndez-Badillo said. “For the longest time, this music style was marginalized.”
They plan on holding cultural events like food festivals and film series, always with a teaching component, according to Meléndez-Badillo.
Meléndez-Badillo said they are trying to foster spaces where students, faculty, staff and community members can actively participate and not simply receive information.
“This is not an initiative limited to Puerto Ricans or those doing Puerto Rican studies,” Santiago said. “Everyone can learn and enjoy the programming and things we will be doing.”
For more information or updates, PRSH can be found on Instagram at @prstudieshub.
