Dr. Cathy Ragland joined the
music faculty at UTPA in fall 2009 as an Assistant Professor of
Ethnomusicology. She received her Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from The
Graduate Center, City University of New York, Master of Arts degree
in Ethnomusicology from the University of Washington, Seattle, and
Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts from the University of Texas
at Austin. Some of Dr. Ragland’s areas of interest and research
include music of the Borderlands, Mexico and the Hispanic Southwest,
Regional American and Country music, Cuban popular music,
traditional and popular musics of Spain, North Africa and the
Balkans. Research topics include Music and Migration, Globalization
and Transnational Networks, Deejay Culture, Urban Ethnomusicology,
Applied Ethnomusicology, Reinventing Music Traditions in New
Contexts, Performance Studies, among others. Her book, Música
Norteña: Mexican Migrants Creating a Nation Between Nations, was
published in May 2009 by Temple University Press. She has also
published articles and reviews in the academic journals
Ethnomusicology, Yearbook for Traditional Music, Journal of American
Folklore, Free-Reed Journal, and others. She is currently
working on two articles for publication in volumes on border music
and international accordion music traditions.
Dr. Ragland
is a native of San Antonio, Texas where she was a popular music and
arts critic and columnist at the San Antonio Express-News.
She has also worked as a music critic and columnist for the
Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly and the Austin
American-Statesman. Dr. Ragland has several years of experience
as a folklorist and program director in nationally-recognized
cultural and community arts organizations such as the Center for
Traditional Music and Dance (Manhattan, NY), Texas Folklife
Resources (Austin, TX), and Northwest Folklife (Seattle, WA), at the
latter she directed the Northwest Folklife Festival. She has
received funding for research and community-based festivals and
public programs from several funders, including the National
Endowment for the Arts, Social Science Research Council, Rockefeller
Fund, US-Mexico Fund for Culture, and the New York State Council on
the Arts. In 2002 she co-founded the Mariachi Academy of New York, a
Harlem-based after school music program offering free music
instruction to students, ages 7-18. Dr. Ragland has taught music,
arts and cultural studies at Empire State College of the State
University of New York, in music departments at Temple University
and at Hunter College, City University of New York. She has also
taught in the Department of Latin American and Puerto Rican Studies
at Lehman College, City University of New York.