Stainova Yana, Assistant Professor
Yana Stainova
Assistant Professor
Faculty
Department of Anthropology
Area(s) of Interest:
Biography
As a sociocultural anthropologist, I am interested in art, urban poverty, social inequality, migration, and the lived experience of violence in Latin America. My research explores how people summon music practices to pursue visions of social justice in the face of political turmoil and barriers to immigration. My first book project entitled Sonorous Worlds: Musical Enchantment in Venezuela studies how young people coming of age in the urban barrios of Caracas use music and stories to push back against the forces of everyday violence, social exclusion, and state repression. My second book project, tentatively titled The Politics of Joy: Collective Art Practices across the US-Mexico Border focuses on Latinx migration and artistic practices in North America.
Education
B.A. Mount Holyoke College, summa cum laude, 2009
Ph.D. Brown University, 2016
Teaching
Courses (2022-2023)
Fall:
- On Maternity Leave
Winter:
- On Maternity Leave
Courses (2021-2022)
Fall:
- ANTHROP 2F03 - Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
- ANTHROP 3LL3 - Of Beauty and Violence
Winter:
- ANTHROP 2MA3 - Media, Art and Anthropology
- ANTHROP 701 - Readings: Cultural Anthropology
- ANTHROP 722 - Ethnographic Theory
Research
Book:
2021. Sonorous Worlds: Musical Enchantment in Venezuela. University of Michigan Press. (Winner: Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology (SLACA) 2021 Book Prize and Co-Winner: Society for Humanistic Anthropology (SHA) 2022 Edie Turner First Book Prize in Ethnographic Writing)
Publications:
2021. Stainova, Yana and Sienna Craig, editors. "Art and Ethnographic Forms in Dark Times." Fieldsites.
2021. "Between Joy and Nostalgia: A Story of Venezuelan Musicians in Paris."
2021. Stainova, Yana and Sienna Craig. “Writing Life No. 12: An interview with Sienna Craig.” Somatosphere.
2021. "Yana Stainova on Musical Enchantment in Venezuela." A Correction: A podcast. March 18, 2021.
2020. "Tchaikovsky Is Ours:’ The Practice of Minor Music from the Barrios of Venezuela." Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies 15(3), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/17442222.2020.1773032
2020. Hirsch, Eric, Chelsey Kivland, and Yana Stainova (equal co-authorship). “Self Exposures: The Political Arts of Ethnoracial Identification in Latin America and the
Caribbean.” Introduction to “Arts of Exposure: The Performative Politics of Ethnoracial Self-Representation in Latin America and the Caribbean,” edited by Eric Hirsch, Chelsey Kivland, and Yana Stainova (equal co-editorship). Special Issue of Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies 15(3).
2020. “Commentary on Andrew Brandel’s 'The Prosody of Social Ties: Poetry and Fleeting Moments in Berlin,'" Current Anthropology. 61 (4).
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/710138?casa_token=D3jPl8zQIW8AAAAA%3AehCNL9WVRPnKCPOY5SWVhZcnev0TRv2_lh13Zhz5h6dAn2xk3eihUFZBZbf1L_Pz7X_87j1khDA
2020. "On Hope," Fieldsites, Visual and New Media Review.
2019. "Enchantment as Method," Anthropology and Humanism, 44(2), 214-230. https://doi.org/10.1111/anhu.12251
2019. "Dancing Energies: Music, the Ineffable, and State Power in Venezuela." Anthropological Quarterly, 92(3), 877-902. doi:10.1353/anq.2019.0051.
2019. “The Force of Sonority,” in collection “Con-text-ure.” Fieldsites
2019. “To Let Oneself be Moved” in collection “Otherwise Anthropology,” Fieldsites. Theorizing the Contemporary Series, edited by Laura McTighe and Megan Raschig
2017. “Enchantment as Methodology.” Savage Minds
2016. “Musical Slums: Playing for Your Life in Venezuela’s ‘El Sistema.” ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America