During the fall of 2022, Lane Kauffmann '70 established a fund for Spanish and Portuguese Studies to honor the memory of his beloved parents, Howard and Suzanne Kauffmann. Find out more about the scholarship in a previous news posting on the SPO website.  SPO concentrators Sydney Johnson, Carrington Johnson and Mariela Mancia Pineda are the first to receive the Howard and Suzanne Kauffmann Fellowship. 

Sydney Johnson is a music lover and rising senior at Princeton University researching the history of reggaeton with a focus on Panamá, Puerto Rico, urban communities, and

the genre’s roots in the African diaspora. Her research question is as follows: How has the commercialization of reggaeton impacted the genre and the visibility of its roots in the African diaspora and urban communities? To answer this question, she will visit museums like El Museo del Reggae en Español, cultural centers, and libraries; as well as interview rappers, fans, and academics about music in a general sense, reggaeton, reggae, reggae en español, musical creative processes, histories of urban communities, and more. She hopes to create a history of the genre that centers the voices and influence of Afro-Latinx artists and urban spaces.

We hope to learn more from each of the fellowship recipients as they delve deeper into their respective research projects.

Congratulations Sydney, Carrington and Mariela!