Reception for Community Engaged Research with Patricia Vergara

Come celebrate research done in collaboration with the community.

Learn about current research and how to get involved in future projects to connect research to our community goals.

The community is invited to UC Merced’s Research Week Reception with Special Guest Speaker Patricia Vergara.

Vergara is a pianist, music producer, and ethnomusicologist who focuses on
the linkages between musical practices, memory, and the politics of place and
mobility in their socio-political contexts.

As a musician and researcher, she specializes in popular music with a focus on Latin American styles and jazz.

She is an Assistant Professor of Music and Media at the University of California, and her
award-winning work has been featured in national and international platforms and
performance venues.

Vergara’s ongoing community-engaged research project the Soundscapes of Merced highlights how we can learn about a place and its peoples through their musical practices, sonic environments, and memories of sound and music.

She performs regularly on piano with various local groups, and most recently
recorded on the album Canciones del San Joaquin (2025) as a member of the Latin
Jazz group Rumba 32, a project by the Alliance for California Traditional Arts.