From the Canon to the Community: Epistemology, Power, and Alternatives in Latin American Music Research

Abstract

This essay examines the place of arts and music research within the contemporary academy through a critique of hegemonic models of global musicology grounded in Eurocentric positivism and Anglo-American intellectual traditions. Although these frameworks have contributed significantly to the field, they also reproduce asymmetrical power relations that position knowledge produced in the Global South as peripheral and primarily extractive. In response, the essay proposes a “Latin American turn” that builds upon the work of Carlos Vega, Argeliers León, and Isabel Aretz. It argues for understanding music research in Latin America, and more broadly in the Global South, as a transdisciplinary practice capable of challenging the epistemic and ontological assumptions established by the Global North. This perspective becomes especially urgent within the contemporary crisis of the academy, characterized by privatization and the growing dominance of market-driven metrics in the humanities. The essay ultimately advocates for situated and collaborative forms of knowledge production that redefine scientific rigor through social relevance and sustained dialogue between academic and nonacademic actors.