Congratulations to Mike Levine, Music PhD Candidate
Congratulations to Ph.D. Candidate Mike Levine, who won the Latin American Studies Association’s Best Student Paper Award in February for his paper titled, “‘Exchanging Cuba for 1 Million YouTube Views’: Piracy, Virality, and ‘Patria y Vida,’” the research for which he shared with ISA during their 2021 graduate symposium last spring.
Levine’s research centers on the Cuban music scene, specifically on how artists and fans gain access to and share music with one another despite the scarcity of traditional internet access, instead utilizing Cuba’s offline internet (called el paquete semanal). This article pulls directly from research for his dissertation titled, “Lo Encontré en El Paquete’: Reparto Music, Media Piracy and Cultural Exchange in Cuba’s Offline Internet.”
Per their website, the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) is “the largest professional association in the world for individuals and institutions engaged in the study of Latin America. With over 13,000 members, over 60% of whom reside outside the United States, LASA is the one association that brings together experts on Latin America from all disciplines and diverse occupational endeavors, across the globe.”
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To learn more about this award, what it means to Levine to receive this honor, where it fits into his research and dissertation work, and more, read the full article by clicking "Read More" below.
