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Nicolás Aguía Betancourt is a composer and a PhD student in Latin American Cultural and Literary Studies. His music has been performed by ensembles and performers, including Sonia Díaz, Roger Zahab, Robert Frankenberry, the JACK Quartet, TAK Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, Loadbang, Duo Cortona, Duo Jacarandá, Bearthoven, and Sonic Apricity, across the United States, Italy, and Colombia. In 2020, Nicolás earned the Premio Especial for his string quartet Melismas Espectrales in Colombia's Second String Quartet National Composition Competition. He was also the 2022 recipient of the William Thomas McKinley Alumni Commission.

His research examines social crises in the Andes and Caribbean through literary texts and music. He is currently studying the works of José María Arguedas and Gamaliel Churata, analyzing how economic history becomes inscribed in their narratives. Aguía is also interested in debates on transhumanism, which he argues rests on a fundamental contradiction: the infrastructure required to sustain it must remain grounded in the very biological reality it seeks to transcend.

In 2024, Nicolás received second place for the Raymund Schwager Memorial Award, presented by the Colloquium on Violence and Religion, for his paper "Mimetic Images of Conflict and Accumulation: Negative Reciprocity in José María Arguedas’ Every Blood." That same year, he was honored with the Graduate Student Research Award from the North Central Council of Latin Americanists (NCCLA) for his paper "La inmunización del autoritarismo en Chile: populismo y destierro de lo político," a comparative analysis of the works of José Joaquín Brunner and Ernesto Laclau.

Publications:

Books:
Camargo Acosta, C., Prado González, C., Aguía Betancourt, N., & Roa Ordoñez, H. Tendencias Actuales de la Creación Académica de la Música Andina Colombiana. Fondo de Publicaciones Universidad Sergio, 2017.

Aricles: 

“Violencia e indiferenciación en Todas las sangres, de José María Arguedas.” Revista Iberoamericana, XCII (295), 2026, 385-405.

“Ahayu-Watan: Gamaliel Churata’s Ontogenetic Philosophy of Memory.” Chasqui: Revista de Literatura y Cultura Latinoamericana e Indígena, 5 (2), 2024, 259-75. 

“Necropolítica en Chambacú, corral de negros de Manuel Zapata Olivella.” Cuadernos de Literatura del Caribe e Hispanoamérica, (36), 2023, 53-76.

“La danza de la tierra: el material musical, rito y sacrificio en La consagración de la primavera de Igor Stravinsky.” Ricercare, (14), 2021, 97-115. 

Conference Proceedings 

“La sombra de la razón: racionalidad instrumental, raza y poder en el pensamiento de Aníbal Quijano y Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze.” Las literaturas de África y su diáspora. Actas de las primeras Jornadas de Literaturas Afro año 2023. Comp. Aguilar, P.; Biorda, M. C.; Impini, G. Facultad de Humanidades, Artes y Ciencias Sociales - UADER. Paraná, E.R.