College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

In September 2021, Abigail Lindo (UF PhD Student, Ethnomusicology) spent a week on São Miguel, the largest of the nine islands in the Azores (a Portuguese autonomous region in the North Atlantic Ocean). This experience served as a preliminary research trip, allowing Lindo to engage with both an unknown environment and a somewhat unknown culture as an independent black female scholar. Throughout the duration of the five-day-long Tremor music festival, Lindo immersed herself in moments of cultural confusion, lush landscapes and uncomfortable situations, along with the wealth of alternative music performances in stereotypical and ridiculously scenic spaces throughout the island. Lindo was confronted with an Americanized Portuguese identity, but one still touted with pride and distinction from America and continental Portugal. She recognized that her identity was also performed in an alternative way, reflecting her existence as a foreign entity, although the festival-goers as participants welcomed her interaction because of her perceived difference. How do these realities shape the nature of the research and why do they matter?

This event is part of the Center for European Studies’ Lunchtime Symposium Speaker Series.