Carlos Dávalos is a journalist from Mexico City and a doctoral candidate at UW–Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. In Fall 2025, he will serve as Lecturer (SA) and instructor of record for J617: Health Communication in the Information Age. He received the 2024 Capstone Teaching Award, a statewide honor recognizing Ph.D. dissertators for outstanding teaching records throughout their graduate programs and was also the UW-Madison’s 2024–25 Mellon Public Humanities Fellow.
His central research agenda examines the transnational relationship between Mexico and the United States in mainstream media, with a focus on FM radio, cultural industries, and identity formation. He earned master’s degrees in journalism (UC Berkeley, 2009) and ethnomusicology (UT Austin, 2017), following a BA in Communication from Mexico City’s Universidad Iberoamericana, where he later taught as adjunct faculty.
Since summer 2024, Carlos has been collaborating at WORT 89.9 FM, Madison’s community-powered radio station. As a Spanish Language programming assistant, he produces bilingual community-centered segments, hosts “Los Madrugadores Show” every Saturday, and contributes to A Public Affair (A.P.A.), WORT’s daily call-in program featuring conversations with local activists, scholars, and international figures. Carlos also serves on WORT’s Board of Directors and other committees.
Carlos remains an active reporter. His journalism was recognized with the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association’s 2025 Award for Excellence (Third Place, Large Market News and Talk Radio, Best Feature) for “Voices of Resilience & Dignity: The Birth of Los Volcanes Cooperative,” which documented how Latino immigrant workers overcame labor abuse to form a cooperative. And in 2024, he was selected as one of four newsroom reporters to cover the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where he reported live on the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris and other events happening at the convention.
Before moving to Madison, Carlos built a diverse career in the journalism, media, and music industries. Among other positions, he worked as an international news editor for journalist Carmen Aristegui’s morning show on MVS, coordinated editorial projects at Sony Music Mexico, served as a junior music supervisor with film and TV producer Lynn Fainchtein (RIP), and blogged for Mexico’s El Universal newspaper. He also founded and co-managed the independent record label Discos Cuchillo and hosted a weekly music show on one of Latin America’s leading audio & podcast platforms — Convoy Network.