About me

I am a musicologist and full professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, where I hold a joint appointment in the College and the Instituto de Música.

I currently serve as Director de Docencia at College UC.

My academic path began with studies in physics and classical guitar before I pursued a Ph.D. in Music History at the University of Pennsylvania.

I started my career at Saint Mary’s College in Indiana, and I have held visiting positions at the University of Texas at Austin, Brown University, Tulane University, the University of Oregon, and the University of Georgia.

Research Interests and Current Projects

My research focuses on popular music in the Américas and Spain, with particular emphasis on gender, sexuality, and the cultural and political work performed by music within social movements.

My recent scholarship has examined the life and music of Víctor Jara, questions of gender performance in Latin American popular music, and broader intersections between sound, identity, and activism.

Currently, I am engaged in the following research projects:

• Gender Gap and Gender Performance in Latin Collaborative Songs (FONDECYT Regular 1260561, principal researcher, 2026-2029)

• Redes, refugios y mentorías: el partido comunista chileno y las artes escénicas (1958-1970) (FONDECYT Regular 1262333, co-researcher, 2026-2028)

• Millennium Nucleus in Musical and Sound Cultures (Núcleo Milenio en Ciencias Sociales NCS2025_65, principal researcher, 2025-2028).

• Gender and the Billboard Hot Latin Songs Chart (Fondo Puente UC, principal researcher, 2025-2026)

Manuscripts and recent publications

Santhiago, R., Lemos, I., Party. D., eds. (2027). Dossier Cultura Pop, Memória e História do Tempo Presente. Revista Tempo e Argumento (in preparation).

Party, D. & Benavente, J. Renovación de la conmemoración del golpe de estado chileno: Los Diablos Rojos de Víctor Jara en la marcha por los derechos humanos. Book chapter under review.

Party, D. (2025). Nuevas aproximaciones a Víctor Jara a cincuenta años de su muerte. Revista Musical Chilena, 79(244), 167-175.

Achondo, L. & Party, D., eds. (2025). Ecologías sonoras desde al Antropoceno latinoamericano: Una introducción al dossier. Resonancias, 29(56), 223-229.

Party, D. , & Díaz Pinto, A. M. (2025). Twenty-first Century Latin/o American Popular Music. In R. Moore & W. A. Clark (Eds.), Musics of Latin America.