Jorell Meléndez-Badillo

It’s not nuanced: when you celebrate the elimination of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion it’s because you are promoting and fostering Homogeneity, Inequity, and Exclusion.

Interrogating the Future of Puerto Rican Studies edited by Aurora Santiago Ortiz and Jorell A. Meléndez-Badillo. The cover is a rainbow gradient with navy blue at the top and red at the bottom. The title is written in a bold sans serif white text in all caps with “Puerto Rican Studies” written larger. Centered on the text is a cut out in the shape of Puerto Rica revealing the background gradient. The editors' names are below in white.

"Interrogating the Future of Puerto Rican Studies," edited by Aurora Santiago Ortiz and @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social, examines the disciplinary and epistemic transformations that have given way to new understandings of the field of Puerto Rican studies. Read the intro fro free now: buff.ly/iInTccO

Puerto Rico: A National History by Jorell Meléndez-Badillo

Jorell Meléndez-Badillo

See @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social at the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture tomorrow (Feb 20) at 6:00pm CST! He'll discuss his book, Puerto Rico, and how his scholarship is shaping how Puerto Rican history is being understood, even influencing Bad Bunny.

Register here: buff.ly/nDY7pBA

You can read more of @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social's work on the history of Puerto Rico in HAHR via @dukepress.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1215/0018...

Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Halftime Show Leads to 245% Spike in Travel Interest to Puerto Rico Bad Bunny's halftime show has caused a major increase in flight searches to Puerto Rico and other Latin countries.

Before you rush off to buy your tix to PR, please educate yourself a bit. You can read my book (Making Never-Never Land: Race and Law in the Creation of PR) & my homie's @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social (PR: A National History) & many others, just do your homework.
consequence.net/2026/02/bad-...

Interrogating the Future of Puerto Rican Studies

You can preorder here: www.dukeupress.edu/interrogatin...

Discount code: E26PRSTD

In a moment when our ability to imagine a future is under attack, I had the privilege of co-editing w @santiaaurora.bsky.social this volume gathering so many incredible scholars and activists thinking about the future of Puerto Rican Studies. The book comes out on April 21 w @dukepress.bsky.social

Image of a book with the words Interrogating the Future of Puerto Rican Studies with gradient colors of black, blue, yellow, red.

Cover reveal day! @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social and I’s co-edited volume. We are thrilled to be in the company of such wonderful cutting edge scholars. Preorder at www.dukeupress.edu/interrogatin....

Bad Bunny's 'Debí Tirar Más Fotos' is a love letter to Puerto Rico. This professor helped him tell the island's history Released Jan. 5, the record pays homage to the island’s rich rhythms like plena and salsa, and delves into it’s seldom taught history.

My colleague Andrea Flores, profiled @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social back in Jan 2025 about collabing with BB. www.latimes.com/delos/story/...

Essay: Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show will be a history lesson for the ages Historian Jorell A. Meléndez-Badillo hopes Bad Bunny's halftime show will combat "acute ignorance" about Puerto Rico and its ongoing entanglement with the United States.

Last week we published this op-ed by @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social about the historic nature of this performance. Jorell is the academic who worked with bad bunny’s team on the visualizers for DTMF, which were full of lessons on Puerto Rican history

www.latimes.com/delos/story/...

🙏🙏🙏

The Lettered Barriada: Workers, Archival Power, and the Politics of Knowledge in Puerto Rico

Jorell is quite rightly being lauded for collaborating with Bad Bunny, and his PUERTO RICO, from @princetonupress.bsky.social, is fantastic, I keep thinking, as I've watched MPLS, of his earlier book THE LETTERED BARRIADA, about PR organizing and educating under occupation in the first half of C20.

💜💜💜

I wrote this article last week and, luckily, it still holds after the Benito Bowl:

“I believe Bad Bunny’s performance will invite people to understand the beauty and complexity of our people’s history, even if it makes outsiders uncomfortable.”

Bad Bunny’s performance began in the plantation, featured broken electric poles, and ended by centering a hemispheric understanding of “América”—among many other things—and some Anglo journalists are like “his performance wasn’t political.”

This is why we need to be telling our stories.

Pop star Bad Bunny needed a Puerto Rican history scholar. UW–Madison had just the one. Bad Bunny collaborated with UW–Madison history professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo on Puerto Rican narratives that accompany the new album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.”

Pretty sure one was consulted, definitely was for the album

news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...

Check out my CNN interview talking about el bebo, a.k.a. Bad Bunny:

Essay: Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show will be a history lesson for the ages Historian Jorell A. Meléndez-Badillo hopes Bad Bunny's halftime show will combat "acute ignorance" about Puerto Rico and its ongoing entanglement with the United States.

Check out my opinion piece at De Los from the Los Angeles Times on Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show as a history lesson.

Congratulations to Bad Bunny, whose album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS won Album of the Year at the 2026 #GRAMMYS! 🎉 🏆️

Did you know that the album’s accompanying YouTube visualizers were written by @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social, author of Puerto Rico: A National History? (1/3)

Bad Bunny's 'Debí Tirar Más Fotos' is a love letter to Puerto Rico. This professor helped him tell the island's history Released Jan. 5, the record pays homage to the island’s rich rhythms like plena and salsa, and delves into it’s seldom taught history.

To know more about the album of the year and its many layers, read this story about @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social.

“Bad Bunny’s ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’ is a love letter to Puerto Rico. This professor helped him tell the island’s history” www.latimes.com/delos/story/...

A radical história de Porto Rico está sendo redescoberta Jorell Meléndez-Badillo trabalhou com o astro Bad Bunny em seu novo álbum para informar os fãs sobre a história de luta popular de Porto Rico. Seu trabalho como historiador é parte de um importante mo...

Jorell Meléndez-Badillo trabalhou com o astro Bad Bunny em seu último álbum para informar os fãs sobre a história de luta popular de Porto Rico. Seu trabalho como historiador é parte de um importante momento político pelo qual os porto-riquenhos estão passando agora.

The CfP for the 2026 Puerto Rican Studies Association Conference in Chicago is officially live!!!

The theme is “Rooted Rican Pasts, Solidarity Futures.”
www.ricanstudies.com/2026-cfp

YouTube video by CUNY Graduate Center Deep Dive: Listening to Bad Bunny - Jorell Meléndez-Badillo and Miguel Zenón in Conversation

ICYMI, watch “Deep Dive: Listening to Bad Bunny - @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social and Miguel Zenón in Conversation” youtu.be/YYh1WJ2fEUs Listening to key tracks, a scholar and a musician discuss the musical and cultural significance of this extremely popular artist. @cuny.edu #puertorican

Thank you for a fascinating look at the music & impact of #BadBunny! “Deep Dive: Listening to Bad Bunny - @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social & Miguel Zenón in Conversation” was moderated by Maurice Restrepo and introduced by Agustina Checa. Video coming soon!

Cover of Duke University Press catalog. The background features the Puerto Rican flag colors—red, white, and blue. "Duke University Press" is written in yellow and white in the blue triangular section and "Spring and Summer 2026" is in the red and white section on the left. Features an illustration of Bad Bunny wearing a yellow outfit and a large straw hat, holding a microphone with yellow lightning bolts emanating from it is in the lower half. The DUP logo is in the lower right.

The Spring 2026 catalog is live! We're featuring #NewBooks by @rtrodrig.bsky.social, @beansvelocci.bsky.social, @amynbooks.bsky.social, @lalehkhalili.bsky.social, @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social, @santiaaurora.bsky.social, and so many more. Check it out now: buff.ly/eJyyixc

Given that we are in December and are looking back at the year that was, I’m particularly proud of this Bad Bunny article we published in January. It’s about how intentional Benito was about crafting the album of the year, leaning into the history of the island that made him the world’s biggest star

Deep Dive: Listening to Bad Bunny - Jorell Meléndez-Badillo and Miguel Zenón in Conversation Elebash Recital Hall

Join us Wed, 12/10, 6:30p (in person or online) for Deep Dive: Listening to Bad Bunny - @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social & Miguel Zenón in Conversation – RESERVE: www.gc.cuny.edu/events/deep-... Listen to key tracks and learn about the style and significance of this extremely popular artist. #BadBunny

Puerto Rico: A National History by Jorell Meléndez-Badillo

Jorell Meléndez-Badillo

Tomorrow (Dec 2) at 5:00 pm CST, please join the University of Minnesota in welcoming @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social for a guest lecture on his book, Puerto Rico, as part of the Katherine E. Nash Gallery's exhibit "21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora."

Learn more here: buff.ly/tqbbInO

Puerto Rico: A National History by Jorell Meléndez-Badillo

Jorell Meléndez-Badillo

Next week, Dec 2 at 5:00 pm CST, please join the University of Minnesota in welcoming @jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social for a guest lecture on his book, Puerto Rico, as part of the Katherine E. Nash Gallery's exhibit "21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora."

Learn more here: buff.ly/tqbbInO

Join the IHRC and the Nash Gallery for Puerto Rico: A National History with Bad Bunny collaborator Jorell Melendez-Badillo on Dec 2. Learn about the history of Puerto Rico and its diaspora. z.umn.edu/JorellMelendezBadillo
@jmelendezbadillo.bsky.social @oah.org @iehs.bsky.social