EDUCATION
University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D., American Studies, 5/19 (expected)
New York University, M.A., Performance Studies, 5/14
University of Pennsylvania, B.S., Economics; Minor, Gender, Culture & Society, 5/09
PUBLICATIONS
Articles
“Starting Something: Synthesizers and Rhythmic Reorientations in Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean,’” Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society (forthcoming).
Under Development
“Fit for a Queen: Grace Jones, The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and the Sharp Resonances of Diasporic Pasts,” will submit to American Quarterly in June 2019.
Book Chapters
“Future Sounds: Janelle Monáe and Cyberpunk Synthetics” (forthcoming), Routledge Companion to Cyberpunk Culture, Lars Schmeink, Anna McFarlane and Graham Murphy (editors), Routledge.
CONFERENCE PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS
“‘And We’ll Try to Imagine What It Looks Like’: Prince, Synthesized Femininity, and the Political Potential of Vulnerability” (forthcoming), American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, November 2018. *panel organizer
“‘Could We Go to a Movie and Cry Together?’: Prince, Vibrational Vulnerability, and the Political Possibility of Androgyny” (forthcoming), National Women’s Studies Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, November 2018. *panel organizer
“Vibrational Genealogies: Music Technology, Gender Presentation, and Racialized Sound in Grimes and Janelle Monáe’s ‘Venus Fly’ and ‘Pynk,’” EMP Pop Music Conference, Museum of Pop Culture, Seattle, WA, April 2018. *panel organizer
“‘I Like This Part’”: Janet Jackson, Digital Music Technologies, and Recrafting Black Female Sexuality in Mid-1980s America,” National Women’s Studies Association Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, November 2017.
“‘Gimme a Beat!’: Janet Jackson, New Musical Technologies, and Vibrationally Breaking the Silences on Black Life in 1980s America,” American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, November 2017.
“‘Cry and Burst My Deafness’: Blood Orange, Affective Bass Lines, and Viscerally Reconnecting with the 1980s,” EMP Pop Music Conference, Museum of Pop Culture, Seattle, WA, April 2017. *panel organizer
“‘A Warmth That I Can Feel with Him’: Blood Orange, Black Queer Potentiality, and Affectively Reaching for the 1980s,” American Studies Graduate Student Conference, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, April 2017. *panel organizer
“Embodied Repetition: Moving with Black Queer Working Class Histories in FKA twigs’s ‘Glass and Patron,’” Protest: Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies and Media Activism Research Collective Graduate Student Conference, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, April 2016.
“‘We Got Love Too Good to Throw Away’: Frankie Knuckles, House Music, and Black Queer Diaspora,” Modern Languages Association, Austin, TX, January 2016.
“‘Hold That Pose for Me’: FKA twigs, Synthesized Sounds, and Vibrational Collectivity,” Affect Theory Conference, Millersville, PA, October 2015.
“Starting Something: Falsettos, Synthesizers, and New Political-Cultural Potentialities in Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean,’” Home/Sick: American Studies Graduate Student Conference, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, April 2015.
“Feeling It in the Break: Sensing Buried Histories and Subjectivities in La Roux’s ‘Colourless Colour,’” New Directions in Anthropology Graduate Student Conference, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, March 2015.
“Blackness, Queerness, and Becoming-Woman: Lingering in the Synthesizer’s Disorienting Sonic Spaces,” New York University Performance Studies MA Final Symposium, New York, NY, May 2014.
INVITED TALKS
“Androgyny as Artistic and Political Resistance: Artistic Interventions from the 1980s,” Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, November 28, 2017.
“Janet Jackson as a Precursor to Beyoncé and Solange Knowles,” Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, October 26, 2017.
HONORS AND AWARDS
Mellon Engaged Scholar Initiative Fellowship, 2017-2020 (includes postdoc year)
UT-Austin College of Liberal Arts Dissertation Fellowship, 2017-2018
UT-Austin Department of American Studies Dissertation Startup Award, Fall 2016
UT-Austin Department of American Studies TA Top Off Award, Fall 2015
TEACHING POSITIONS
TA-Ships
AMS 355: Main Currents in American Culture to 1865, Summer 2017 (Professor Shirley Thompson)
AMS 356: Main Currents in American Culture Since 1865, Spring 2017 (Professor Randy Lewis)
AMS 356: Main Currents in American Culture Since 1865, Fall 2016 (Professor Julia Mickenberg)
AMS 310: Introduction to American Studies, Spring 2016 (Professor Jeannette Vaught)
AMS 310: Introduction to American Studies, Fall 2015 (Professor Steven Hoelscher)
HIS 315K: The United States: 1492-1865, Spring 2015 (Professor Christopher Ernst)
AMS 310: Introduction to American Studies, Fall 2014 (Professor Elizabeth Engelhardt)
DEPARTMENTAL SERVICE
American Studies Graduate Student Committee (September 2014-August 2016)
American Studies Events Committee (March 2015-February 2016)
Graduate Students-Faculty Liaison for the Potential New Hire (February-March 2016)
AFFILIATIONS
American Studies Association
National Women’s Studies Association
GL/Q Caucus for the Modern Languages Association
OTHER PROJECTS
Music writer for Bitch Media, January 2017-Present.
Research support on Queer Genius, a documentary by Catherine Pancake, Fall 2016