Agustina Checa (she/her/ella) is an ethnomusicologist working at the intersection of popular music and media studies and the director of the Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music (HISAM) at the Graduate Center. She studies music technologies, material culture, value, and the infrastructures that sustain independent music in South America. Her book project builds on a decade-long involvement with independent labels that produce and circulate cassette tapes across Argentina. Her most recent ethnographic endeavor is with independent labels that produce vinyl reissue albums in Lima, Peru. Directing HISAM, Checa pushes for diversifying the study of American music by promoting cutting-edge scholarship and organizing public events. She is also the managing director of American Music Review.