José R. Torres-Ramos is a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology, whose research is centralized in Latin America, including a specialization in mariachi teaching, performance, and research. While at UNT, he assisted with, and taught, courses in ethnomusicology, music education, conducted the university’s mariachi ensembles, and held an appointment as research assistant for the Division of Community Engagement in the Office of the President. José was awarded a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Award (DDRA) Fellowship, funding twelve months of dissertation fieldwork conducted in Mexico City and Guadalajara in 2018. He has been twice featured in the UNT Research Magazine and is a recipient of the Perry R. Bass Fellowship in Music Education and a Presser Foundation Graduate Music Student Award, that latter funding a three-month performance-research practicum in Mexico. His scholarship has been published in the Proceedings of the American Musicological Society Southwest Chapter and in two edited volumes entitled, El Mariachi: Bailes y Huellas and Del Mariache al Mariachi, Música y Músicos published by the Colegio de Jalisco, Secretaría de Cultura, Gobierno del Estado de Jaliso. A forthcoming chapter on phenomenology of musical gesture is included in the edited volume, Los Sentidos del Cuerpo: El Giro Sensorial en la Investigación Social y los Estudios de Género published by the Mexico National Autonomous University (UNAM), Center for Research and Studies of Gender (CIEG). A certified music teacher, José previously taught mariachi at the secondary level and maintains a career as a professional performer, as well as clinician, and adjudicator for festivals and conferences throughout the US. He is immediate Past President of UNT’s Student Society for Ethnomusicology at North Texas (SSENT) and is Webmaster for the Society for Ethnomusicology Southern Plains Chapter (SEMSP). José was awarded the Hiram College Diversity Dissertation/Teaching Fellowship for the 2019-2020 academic year, supporting completion of his dissertation entitled, “Mariachismo: Music, Machismo, and Mexicanidad.”