About
Frances
Negrón-Muntaner is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, curator, and scholar. Her
career spans multiple disciplines and practices; including cinema, literature,
cultural criticism, and politics.
At present, Negrón-Muntaner is an
associate professor of English and Comparative Literature, founding curator of
the Latino Arts Activism archive, and director of the Center for the Study of
Ethnicity and Race, and the Media and Idea Lab at Columbia
University in New York City. Her
work focuses on a comparative exploration of coloniality in the Americas, with
special attention to the intersections between class, race, ethnicity, gender, and
sexuality.
Among her films are AIDS in the Barrio: Eso no me pasa a mí (1989, co-directed with Peter Biella), an award-winning documentary about the social and cultural context of the AIDS epidemic in a North Philadelphia Puerto Rican community. In 1994, she released the indie classic Brincando el charco: Portrait of a Puerto Rican, a pioneering film that examined issues of race, gender, and homophobia in the wake of mass migration. Most recently, she completed Small City, Big Change (2013) a short video based on her brief about the influence of Latino advocacy efforts on LGTB civil rights struggles developed in collaboration with Hispanics in Philanthropy. In 2015, she will release War for Guam, a PBS documentary about the impact and legacy of World War II in Guam.
A prolific scholar, Negrón-Muntaner has published several books, policy briefs, and reports. In 1997, she co-edited the groundbreaking, Puerto Rican Jam: Rethinking Colonialism and Nationalism, a collection that investigates the prescription that nationalism is the cure for colonialism. During the same year, she wrote the first draft of what later became known as the “radical statehood manifesto,” a political intervention that challenged conventional ideas of sovereignty in the Caribbean. In 2004, Negrón-Muntaner published Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture (CHOICE Award), a collection of essays that included "Jennifer's Butt,” a landmark text for the discussion of contemporary U.S. popular culture. The book also includes chapters on West Side Story, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Holly Woodlawn, and Rosario Ferré. Negrón-Muntaner has also edited several other collections, including None of the Above: Puerto Ricans in the Global Era (Palgrave 2007) and Sovereign Acts (forthcoming, 2016). In 2014, she published The Latino Media Gap (2014), the most comprehensive report to date of the persistent marginalization of Latinos in English-language mainstream media.
Negrón-Muntaner has also helped establish institutions and programs dedicated to disseminating the work of filmmakers and intellectuals. She is the founder of Miami Light Project's Filmmakers Workshop, the organizer/fundraiser of several conferences on Puerto Rican/Latino affairs, and a founding board member and former chair of NALIP, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers. During her three-year tenure as NALIP's board chair, Negrón-Muntaner contributed to the creation of the organization’s signature programs (the annual conference, Latino Producers Academy, and Latino Writers Lab). She was also been part of the leadership responsible for the organization’s transformation from a startup with a few hundred members in 1999 into the country’s most important Latino producer organization.
Since 2008, Negrón-Muntaner has served as director of the Center of the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University. During her tenure, the Center has significantly expanded its student enrollment, academic programs, including an MA in American Studies, and public engagement. In 2012, Negrón-Muntaner became the founding curator of the Latino Arts and Activism Collection at Butler Library; the goal of the archive is to identify, acquire, preserve, and make accessible the papers and records of Latinos in New York and beyond that may be of enduring significance as research resources. In 2013, she founded the Media and Idea Lab, a new space that supports interdisciplinary work that promote the study and discussion of complex problems through innovative research and digital media.
For her work as a scholar and filmmaker, Negrón-Muntaner has received several fellowships, including the Ford, Truman, Scripps Howard, Rockefeller, Pew, and Chang-Chavkin. Major funders such as Social Science Research Council, Andy Warhol Foundation, and Independent Television Service have also supported her work. In 2008, the United Nations' Rapid Response Media Mechanism recognized her as a global expert in the areas of mass media and Latin/o American studies; in 2012, she received the Lenfest Award, one of Columbia University's most prestigious recognitions.
Negrón-Muntaner holds a BA in Sociology from the University of Puerto Rico (1986), Masters in Visual Anthropology and Fine Arts from Temple University (1991, 1994), and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Rutgers University (2000).
Among her films are AIDS in the Barrio: Eso no me pasa a mí (1989, co-directed with Peter Biella), an award-winning documentary about the social and cultural context of the AIDS epidemic in a North Philadelphia Puerto Rican community. In 1994, she released the indie classic Brincando el charco: Portrait of a Puerto Rican, a pioneering film that examined issues of race, gender, and homophobia in the wake of mass migration. Most recently, she completed Small City, Big Change (2013) a short video based on her brief about the influence of Latino advocacy efforts on LGTB civil rights struggles developed in collaboration with Hispanics in Philanthropy. In 2015, she will release War for Guam, a PBS documentary about the impact and legacy of World War II in Guam.
A prolific scholar, Negrón-Muntaner has published several books, policy briefs, and reports. In 1997, she co-edited the groundbreaking, Puerto Rican Jam: Rethinking Colonialism and Nationalism, a collection that investigates the prescription that nationalism is the cure for colonialism. During the same year, she wrote the first draft of what later became known as the “radical statehood manifesto,” a political intervention that challenged conventional ideas of sovereignty in the Caribbean. In 2004, Negrón-Muntaner published Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture (CHOICE Award), a collection of essays that included "Jennifer's Butt,” a landmark text for the discussion of contemporary U.S. popular culture. The book also includes chapters on West Side Story, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Holly Woodlawn, and Rosario Ferré. Negrón-Muntaner has also edited several other collections, including None of the Above: Puerto Ricans in the Global Era (Palgrave 2007) and Sovereign Acts (forthcoming, 2016). In 2014, she published The Latino Media Gap (2014), the most comprehensive report to date of the persistent marginalization of Latinos in English-language mainstream media.
Negrón-Muntaner has also helped establish institutions and programs dedicated to disseminating the work of filmmakers and intellectuals. She is the founder of Miami Light Project's Filmmakers Workshop, the organizer/fundraiser of several conferences on Puerto Rican/Latino affairs, and a founding board member and former chair of NALIP, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers. During her three-year tenure as NALIP's board chair, Negrón-Muntaner contributed to the creation of the organization’s signature programs (the annual conference, Latino Producers Academy, and Latino Writers Lab). She was also been part of the leadership responsible for the organization’s transformation from a startup with a few hundred members in 1999 into the country’s most important Latino producer organization.
Since 2008, Negrón-Muntaner has served as director of the Center of the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University. During her tenure, the Center has significantly expanded its student enrollment, academic programs, including an MA in American Studies, and public engagement. In 2012, Negrón-Muntaner became the founding curator of the Latino Arts and Activism Collection at Butler Library; the goal of the archive is to identify, acquire, preserve, and make accessible the papers and records of Latinos in New York and beyond that may be of enduring significance as research resources. In 2013, she founded the Media and Idea Lab, a new space that supports interdisciplinary work that promote the study and discussion of complex problems through innovative research and digital media.
For her work as a scholar and filmmaker, Negrón-Muntaner has received several fellowships, including the Ford, Truman, Scripps Howard, Rockefeller, Pew, and Chang-Chavkin. Major funders such as Social Science Research Council, Andy Warhol Foundation, and Independent Television Service have also supported her work. In 2008, the United Nations' Rapid Response Media Mechanism recognized her as a global expert in the areas of mass media and Latin/o American studies; in 2012, she received the Lenfest Award, one of Columbia University's most prestigious recognitions.
Negrón-Muntaner holds a BA in Sociology from the University of Puerto Rico (1986), Masters in Visual Anthropology and Fine Arts from Temple University (1991, 1994), and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Rutgers University (2000).