Gloria M. Colom Braña

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DISSERTATION

Expected Spring 2024   Cultural Uses of the Carport in Puerto Rico: Everything but the Car

The dissertation focuses on how carports have become ubiquitous in the Puerto Rican landscape due to the social political history of the twentieth century and how Puerto Ricans have adapted this space as a site of daily life and heightened cultural life events.

 

EDUCATION    

2013 – Present          Doctoral Candidate

                                    Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology

                                    Indiana University | Bloomington, IN                

 

2009 - 2011                Master of Architecture

                                    The Illinois School of Architecture

                                    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Champaign, Il

 

2003 - 2005               Master of Science in Historic Preservation

                                    Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Historic Preservation

                                    Columbia University | New York, NY

 

1999 - 2003               Bachelor of Environmental Design

                                    School of Architecture

                                    University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras | Rio Piedras, PR

 

EXPERIENCE

2021-Present             Historic Preservation Program Manager

                                    Housing and Neighborhood Development Department

                                    City of Bloomington | Bloomington, IN

     

2020-2021                 Instructor

                                    Lats-L102: Introduction to Latino History

                                    Create syllabus and teach the course

                                    Indiana University | Bloomington, IN

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2018 -2019                Instructor

                                    Lats-L398: Latino Folklore | Latinx Folk Art

                                    Create syllabus and teach the course

                                    Indiana University | Bloomington, IN

 

2014 – 2017               Assistant Instructor

                                    Folk 131: Folklore in the United States and Folk 121: Global Arts and Culture

                                    Program courses, teach discussion sections, prepare syllabus, and grade

                                    Indiana University | Bloomington, IN

 

2014                           Oral History Interviewer

                                    Coming Together: An Oral History of the Ostroms and their Scholarly Impact on Problem Solving

                                    Indiana University Center for the Study of History and Memory

                                    Indiana University | Bloomington, IN

 

2011- 2013                Special Assistant

                                    ArcGIS, design consultation, urban planning assistance

                                    Aguadilla City Urbanism Department | Aguadilla, PR

 

2006 - 2009               Architectural Conservationist II

                                    Institute of Puerto Rican Culture | San Juan, PR

 

2005                           Draftsperson

                                    Architect Gloria J. Braña | Aguadilla, PR

 

2004                           Conservation Intern

                                    Material Culture Restoration

                                    Museo Santa Teresa de Jesús | Arequipa, Peru

 

2003 - 2005               Work Study | Editor of Spanish Language 9/11 Interviews

                                    Oral History Research Office Columbia University | New York, NY

 

 

AWARDS

2023                           Historic Preservation Fund Grant

                                    Bloomington, IN

 

2023                           IU Cinema Creative Collaborations Grant

                                   Bloomington, IN

 

2019                           College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Completion Fellowship

                                   Bloomington, IN

 

2018                           College of Arts and Sciences Travel Award

                                    Conference – April 2018 | Alexandria, Virginia

 

2017                           Latino Studies Dissertation Year Fellowship

                                    Bloomington, IN

 

2017                           Folklore Fellowship

                                   Bloomington, IN

 

2017                           College of Arts and Sciences Travel Award

                                    Conference – April 2017 | Göttingen, Germany

 

2017                           Graduate Conference Travel Award

                                    Conference – April 2017 | Göttingen, Germany

 

2015                           Gerald L. Davis Travel Award

                                    Conference- October 2015 | Long Beach, CA

 

2015                           Dorson Paper Prize

                                    “The Pirate Ballad Revisited: Of Broadsides, Politics, and Mayhem”

                                    Bloomington, IN

                                                     

2014                           Pamela H. Simpson Presenter’s Fellowship for Vernacular Architecture Forum Conference

                                    May 2014 | Stockton, NJ

 

2013                           Indiana Student Scholarship for the National Preservation Conference, Indiana Landmarks                                                   October 2013| Indianapolis, IN

 

2013                           Graduate Scholars Fellowship

                                   Indiana University | Bloomington, IN

 

2010                           E. Benno Philippson AIA Travel Award | Shanghai, China

                                    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Champaign, Il

 

2009                           Creative and Performing Arts Fellowship |Tuition & Stipend (2009-10)

                                    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Champaign, Il

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PUBLICATIONS

2022 - “Documenting Disaster Folklore in the Eye of the Storm: Six Months after María” in We Are All Survivors: Verbal, Ritual, and Material Ways of Narrating Disaster and Recovery ed. by Carl Lindahl, Michael Dylan Foster, and Kate Parker Hogan. Indiana University Press.

 

2021- “¿Batata? ¡Batata! Examining Puerto Rican Visual Folk Expression in Times of Adversities” in Theorizing Folklore from the Margins: Critical and Ethical Approaches ed. by Solimar Otero and Mintzi Martínez Rivera. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

 

2021 - “Everything but the Car: How the Carport Became the Social Heart of the Puerto Rican House.” Material Culture Review. Cape Bretton University (March 2021).

 

2018  - Review of Concrete and Countryside: The Urban and the Rural in 1950s Puerto Rican Culture by Carmelo Esterrich, Polimorfo.

 

2015  - Review of Preserving South Street Seaport: The Dream and Reality of a New York Urban Renewal District by James M. Lindgren, Journal of Folklore Research: An International Journal of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. December 15, 2015.http://www.indiana.edu/~jfr/review.php?id=1798 (Accessed 12/28/15)

 

2014 - Review of An Anthropology of Architecture by Victor Buchli, Museum Anthropology Review, Vol 8 No 1. June 1, 2014. https://doi.org/10.14434/mar.v8i1.12828 (Accessed 1/6/2020)

 

 

PAPERS

2020                           “IU Graduate Lightning Round” Conversations About Materials for Interaction

                                    Cultural Studies Program, IU – March 2020 | Bloomington, Indiana

 

2019                            “Stationary and Ever Changing: The Social Life of the Puerto Rican Carport”

                                    Co-Chaired panel: ¡Mira Eso!: Material Culture and Vernacular Cultural Practices in Latin America

                                    American Folklore Society Meeting – Oct. 2019 | Baltimore, MD

 

2018                           "Roundtable: Puerto Rican Scholars and Collective Trauma: Implications for Conducting Fieldwork

                                    in the Midst of Hurricanes Irma and Maria"

                                    Puerto Rican Studies Association Conference – Oct. 2018 | New Brunswick, NJ

 

2018                           "Puerto Rico After Maria: Creative Reactivation of Traditions for Survival"

                                    Vernacular Architecture Forum Conference – May 2018 | Alexandria, VA

 

2017                            “Gilded Cages: Ornament and Protection in Puerto Rican Houses During Times of Uncertainty”

                                    SIEF2017 13th Congress: Göttingen, Germany
 

 

2015                           “Puerto Rican Vernacular Architecture: Both and Neither, Traditional and Modern”

                                    American Folklore Society Annual Meeting – October 2015 | Long Beach, CA

 

2014                           “Food, Place and Culture: Plaza del Mercado in Puerto Rican Towns”

                                    Vernacular Architecture Forum Conference – May 2014 | Stockton, NJ

 

LANGUAGES            

• Fluent - English and Spanish

• Intermediate reading - French

 

SKILLS 

• Hand sketching

• building surveys

• architectural photography

 

PROGRAMS

• Microsoft Suite

• Canvas

• AutoCAD

• ArcGIS

• Photoshop

• Illustrator

• InDesign

• Sketchup

• Qualtrics