Katia Chornik

Katia Chornik joined the University of Cambridge's Centre of Latin American Studies in 2020. Her work explores cultural history, politics, human rights and memory in Latin America. Her first book, Alejo Carpentier and the Musical Text (Routledge, 2015), discusses the roles of music in the works of the Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier (1904–1980). Her forthcoming book, Music and Political Imprisonment in Pinochet's Chile (OUP), blends archival sources with personal interviews with ex-political prisoners, state agents and other witnesses, examining wide-ranging lived experiences in political detention and torture centres, and how these are remembered, preserved, and disseminated decades later. Katia’s book is prologued by Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile, 7th UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and ex-UN Women Executive Director.

Katia is the founder of the Cantos Cautivos project (www.cantoscautivos.org), which holds over 160 testimonies of music experiences under political imprisonment. Hailed as "an extraordinary digital archive" by The New Yorker critic Alex Ross, her project was featured in a British Museum exhibition and in manifold media reports. Katia is currently working with UNESCO, Chile’s Ministry of Education and the National Archive to create human rights education resources based on Cantos Cautivos, to be used by schools as part of the national curriculum.

Besides her articles in peer-reviewed journals, she has written for the BBC, The Guardian, Times Higher Education, The Economist, The Conversation, and Open Democracy, among other outlets. Katia’s research and engagement work has been funded by the Leverhulme Trust, Chile’s Ministry of Culture, and UNESCO. She has worked in HE impact management and in the cultural and public sectors in the UK and Chile. She is currently a member of the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement’s Inclusion Advisory Group. She holds degrees from the Catholic University of Chile, the Royal Academy of Music, and The Open University, and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.