MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale
MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale
Council on Latin American & Iberian Studies

Shelby Arias-Runyan

Council on Latin American & Iberian Studies
Academic Year: 2027-28, 2026-27, 2025-26

Shelby Arias-Runyan is a pianist and music theorist originally from central Florida, and now based in Connecticut. In addition to teaching within the Department of Music, she leads sessions at the Yale University Art Gallery for K-12, university, and community groups as a Wurtele Gallery Teacher. Central themes in her research include Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino popular musics; music and identity; and intersections of music theory with media theory. Her dissertation is tentatively titled “Esencia Africana, Música Cubana: Latin Music Between Cuba, West Africa, and the Global North, 1959–2001,” and investigates the development of Latin music as a commercial and aesthetic category from the Cold War to the 1990s.