Frances Negrón-Muntaner is a filmmaker, writer, scholar and professor at Columbia University, where she is also the founding curator of the Latino Arts and Activism Archive. She is also the author of Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture (CHOICE Award, 2004), The Latino Media Gap (2014), and Sovereign Acts: Contesting Colonialism in Native Nations and Latinx America (2017). Her most recent films include Small City, Big Change (2013), War for Guam (2015) and Life Outside (2016).
Frances has received Ford, Truman, Rockefeller, and Pew fellowships. In 2008, the United Nations’ Rapid Response Media Mechanism recognized her as a global expert in the areas of mass media and Latin/o American studies. She is also a recipient of the Lenfest Award, one of Columbia University’s most prestigious recognitions for excellence in teaching and scholarship (2012); an inaugural OZY Educator Award (2017); the Latin American Studies Association’s 2019 Frank Bonilla Public Intellectual Award, and the 2019 Media Trailblazer Award from the National Association of Latino Independent Producers.
In 2019, Frances launched Valor y Cambio, an art, digital storytelling and just economy project in Puerto Rico and New York for which she was awarded the 2019 Premio Borimix from the Society for Educational Arts in New York.
