I was born in Santiago de Chile and have a PhD in Ethnomusicology (2019), as well as training in Cultural Studies (MA - 2014), Sociology (BSc - 2011), and Fine Arts (BFA - 2011). My research has focused on the social histories surrounding traditional music practices in Chile and the Southern Cone. I have worked in both educational and governmental institutions. My interests revolve around Latin American postcolonial cultures and cultural resistance, particularly in local sung-poetry traditions and women’s music-poetic practice in these regions. As part of epistemological decolonising efforts in academia, I am also interested in exploring alternative research methods such as autoethnography, collaborative ethnography, and arts-based research practice. Some of these methods are essential to my current postdoctoral research project, entitled 'Southern Cone Cantoras: Collaborative Approaches to the Practice in a Post-Colonial Era'.

Research interests and PhD supervision

• Gender studies
• Antiracist studies
• Decolonial studies
• Southern Cone cantoras
• Latin American popular poetry

Selected publications

Batlle L., María B. 2021. ‘Violeta Parra: musical and political legacy of a cantora’. Ethnomusicology Forum 30(3): 358-378. https://doi.org/10.1080/17411912.2021.2006075/

Batlle L., María B., and Andrea Martínez C. 2021. ‘Cantoras De Rueda En Chile: Antecedentes Histórico-Culturales De Su irrupción En El Siglo XXI’. Neuma (Talca) 14(1): 108-34. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0719-53892021000100108/ (co-authored with cantora de rueda Andrea Martínez applying collaborative ethnography)

Argüello, A., Batlle, M., Beltrán, N., Guerra, M., Guevara, S., and Carola López. 2022. ‘Manifiesto Decimista’ Revista Transcultural de Música' (TRANS) 22.

‘The Chilean Cantora: Understanding the Female Singer of the People in Light of Latin American Postcolonial Culture’ in Mathias, Rhiannon (ed.) Elements: Women in Music, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Accepted for publication. Forthcoming 2023

‘Cantoras y Payadoras en Chile: Trazando la Ruta de las Mujeres en la Décima,’ co-authored with cantora Carola López. Part of ICTM-Chile & Universidad de Los Lagos edited book: Etnomusicología en el Chile del Siglo XXI: Diálogos y Reflexiones sobre Prácticas Musicales Locales. Accepted for publication. Forthcoming 2023

Click here to access more of Maria's work.