Sophia Enriquez

Sophia M. Enriquez (she/her) is a scholar and educator working at the intersections of Latinx and Appalachian cultures. She works as Assistant Professor of music at Duke University where she also teaches in the Program for Latinx Studies in the Global South. Sophia earned her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at Ohio State University where she also completed graduate certificates in folklore and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality studies. Building disciplinary relationships across Latinx studies, Appalachian studies, and ethnomusicology, Enriquez’s work sheds light on the complexities of the shifting cultural landscape of Appalachia and the South and challenges assumptions about Latinx community, migration, and belonging through music.

Enriquez has been involved in a number of public folklore projects across the Appalachian region and is passionate about community-engaged scholarship. As a teacher, Sophia encourages students to explore their local communities and their everyday engagement with the arts. Her teaching praxis is informed by international feminisms that provide students with the tools to make sense of troubled histories and contemporary concerns as they navigate an increasingly complicated world.

Enriquez is also a practitioner of American folk musics and has performed with groups such as the Good Time Girls, a female folk trio in Columbus, Ohio, and the Lua Project, a Mexican-Appalachian fusion band in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Bio September 2021