Luis Manuel Garcia-Mispireta, PhD
a.k.a. LMGM
Educator, Researcher, Writer, Activist, Organizer, DJHEAR MY NAME (audio)
About
I party so you don't have to. Queer AF, post-migrant Canadian of Peruvian-Colombian ancestry. Multiple migrant (Toronto, Berlin, Chicago, Paris, Birmingham, Groningen). Ceviche specialist.Scholar, curator, and practitioner of popular electronic music, using practice-led ethnographic methods.
- PhD U Chicago 2011 (ethnomusicology)Gay affinity animal: capybara.
AWARDS, PRIZES, AND REVIEWS FOR
Together, Somehow: Music, Affect, and Intimacy on the Dancefloor (Duke U Press, 2023)
2025 IASPM Book Prize for best English-language book in popular music studies (IASPM-Int’l Chapter); Press Release
2025 Woody Guthrie Prize for best first monograph in popular music studies (IASPM-US Chapter)
2024 Ruth Stone Prize for best first monograph (Society for Ethnomusicology); Press Release
Duke University Press Scholars of Color First Book Award
AMS 75 Publication Award for Young Scholars (American Musicological Society)
REVIEW: Fewer, R. (2024). Luis Manuel Garcia-Mispireta, Together, Somehow: Music, Affect, and Intimacy on the Dancefloor. Dancecult Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture 16(1): 143–144.
REVIEW: Ornelas, N. (2024). Luis Manuel Garcia-Mispireta, Together, Somehow: Music, Affect, and Intimacy on the Dancefloor. Cultural Geographies, 32(3): 435–436.
REVIEW: Graber, K. (2024). Luis Manuel Garcia-Mispireta, Together, Somehow: Music, Affect, and Intimacy on the Dancefloor. Journal of Anthropological Research 80(2): 225–227.
PRESS & INTERVIEWS
INTERVIEW/DISCUSSION with Maren Hancock for the Popular Music Books in Progress series, Mar 4, 2024. Archived Recording
INTERVIEW with Joshua Glazer for Billboard Magazine, Aug 10, 2023.
INTERVIEW with Todd L. Burns for the Music Journalism Insider newsletter, Aug 7, 2023.
Recent Work & Ongoing Projects
2025 ROUNDTABLE (preview): "The Night is Still Young: A Cross-Disciplinary Forum on Queer Nightlife Studies" (with 9 other queer nightlife scholars). The Sociological Quarterly.
2024 ARTICLE: "Community Building From The Bottoms Up: Participatory / Co-Creative Research with Berlin’s Queer Nightlife Collectives" (online, FREE) : A brief reflection on integrating collaborative/co-creative research methods into focused ethnography.
BOTTOMS UP ZINE January 2024: "From the Bottoms Up: Berlin Queer Nightlife and Community Organising” (PDF: machine readable; printable; black & white) A FREE, open-source report on a Summer 2023 community consultation project. Part of a NEW PROJECT (see below).
NEW BOOK August 2023: Together, Somehow: Music, Affect, and Intimacy on the Dancefloor. Monograph (single-author book). Duke University Press.
2023 NEW PROJECT: "From the Bottoms Up: Grassroots Organizing and Nightlife Activism in Queer Rave Collectives", initial funding by AHRC Impact Acceleration Account (Press Release)
2022 LECTURE: "Bouncers, Door Policies, Multiculturalism" (MixCloud). Presented at Unsafe Sounds Festival, 1 October 2022.
Ongoing publication: The Oxford Handbook of Electronic Dance Music. Co-edited with Robin James. Oxford University Press.
2021: Ethnography and Queer Intimacies on the Dance Floor with Luis-Manuel Garcia Interview by Will Robin for Sound Expertise Podcast.
2020: “Feeling the Vibe: Sound, Vibration, and Affective Attunement in Electronic Dance Music Scenes.” Ethnomusicology Forum. DOI: 10.1080/17411912.2020.1733434
2019: LMGM Ambient DJ set @ Room 4 Resistance, Berlin.
2019: LMGM Rave DJ set (closing) @ Room 4 Resistance, Berlin.
SEE BELOW FOR FULL CV
Links
Room 4 Resistance (Berlin)
Staff profile at the University of Birmingham (UK)
For Resident Advisor: "An alternate history of sexuality in club culture." (2013)
Soundcloud profile for Room 4 Resistance
My very sporadically updated LMGMblog
Luis in Paris (DORMANT), PhD fieldwork blog, 2006–2011
Contact