EDUCATION
Ph.D. American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, 2019
Dissertation: “Hyperaural Blackness: Black Pop Stars, New Musical Technologies, and Vibrational Negotiations of Identity in the Mid-1980s and Beyond”
Co-supervisors: Ann Cvetkovich and Shirley Thompson
M.A. Performance Studies, New York University, 2014
B.S. Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 2009
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2022-Present ACLS Assistant Professor of African American Studies, California State University, Fullerton
2021-2022 ACLS Visiting Assistant Professor of African American Studies, California State University, Fullerton
2020-2021 Visiting Assistant Professor of Communication and Gender & Sexuality Studies, Tulane University
2019-2020 Andrew W. Mellon Engaged Scholar Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Texas at Austin
PUBLICATIONS
Peer-Reviewed Publications
“‘Where Do You Go When the Radio’s Down?’: Black Women Experimental Pop Artists, ‘Alternative R&B,’ and the Simultaneous Dissolution and Persistence of Musical Genre,” AMP: American Music Perspectives.
“‘Gimme a Beat!’: Janet Jackson, Hyperaurality, and Affective Feminism,” Journal of Popular Music Studies.
“Starting Something: Synthesizers and Rhythmic Reorientations in Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean,’” Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society.
Book Chapters
“Finding a Home in House: Tracing Vibrations of Black Queer Femmeness from Chicago to Robin S. to FKA twigs,” Oxford Handbook of Electronic Dance Music, Luis-Manuel Garcia and Robin James (editors), Oxford.
“Future Sounds: Janelle Monáe and Cyberpunk Synthetics,” Routledge Companion to Cyberpunk Culture, Lars Schmeink, Anna McFarlane, and Graham Murphy (editors), Routledge.
Essays
“Lana Del Rey, Fragile Feminism, and White Fragility in a Moment of Black Lives Matter,” Los Angeles Review of Books.
AWARDS, GRANTS, AND FELLOWSHIPS
2021-2023 American Council of Learned Societies Postdoc to Tenure Track Award, Cal State Fullerton
2017-2021 Andrew W. Mellon Engaged Scholar Initiative Fellowship
2017-2018 Dissertation Fellowship, College of Liberal Arts, UT Austin
2016 Dissertation Award, Department of American Studies, UT Austin
2015 TA Top Off Award, Department of American Studies, UT Austin
INVITED TALKS
2021: “So In The Long Run, It All Ends Up The Same Way”: Janet Mock, Venus Xtravaganza, and a Sonic Black and Brown Transness,” Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.
2021 “‘Someone Who Isn’t Supposed To Be Here’: Janet Mock, Pop Music, and a Sonics of Black Trans Femmeness,” California State University, Fullerton, CA.
2020 “‘If I Was Your Girlfriend’: Prince, Androgyny, and Female Collaborators,” University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA.
2020 “‘We’ll Try to Imagine What Silence Looks Like’: Prince, Femininity, and Vibrationally Navigating the 1980s,” Loyola University, New Orleans, LA.
2017 “Janet Jackson as a Vibrational Precursor to Beyoncé and Solange Knowles,” Texas State University, San Marcos, TX.
PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS
*panel organizer
2020 *“Blackness, Hip Hop, and American Dreaming in Lana Del Rey’s Discography,” Pop Conference.
2020 “‘You’ve Got to Show Me Love’: Robin S., Black Femininity, and 1990s Dance Pop,” Music Scholarship at a Distance.
2019 *“‘Breathe to the Rhythm’: Grace Jones and the Performance of Diasporic Pasts,” National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA.
2018 *“‘And We’ll Try to Imagine What It Looks Like’: Prince, Synthesized Femininity, and the Political Potential of Vulnerability,” American Studies Association Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA.
2018 *“‘Could We Go to a Movie and Cry Together?’: Prince, Vibrational Vulnerability, and the Political Possibility of Androgyny,” National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA.
2018 *“Vibrational Genealogies: Music Technology, Gender Presentation, and Racialized Sound in Grimes and Janelle Monáe’s ‘Venus Fly’ and ‘Pynk,’” Pop Conference, Museum of Pop Culture, Seattle, WA.
2017 “‘I Like This Part’”: Janet Jackson, Digital Music Technologies, and Recrafting Black Female Sexuality in Mid-1980s America,” National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD.
2017 “‘Gimme a Beat!’: Janet Jackson, New Musical Technologies, and Vibrationally Breaking the Silences on Black Life in 1980s America,” American Studies Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
2017 *“‘Cry and Burst My Deafness’: Blood Orange, Affective Bass Lines, and Viscerally Reconnecting with the 1980s,” Pop Conference, Museum of Pop Culture, Seattle, WA.
2017 *“‘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.
2016 “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.
2016 “‘We Got Love Too Good to Throw Away’: Frankie Knuckles, House Music, and Black Queer Diaspora,” Modern Languages Association Annual Conference, Austin, TX.
2015 “‘Hold That Pose for Me’: FKA twigs, Synthesized Sounds, and Vibrational Collectivity,” Affect Theory Conference, Millersville, PA.
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.
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.
2014 “Blackness, Queerness, and Becoming-Woman: Lingering in the Synthesizer’s Disorienting Sonic Spaces,” New York University Performance Studies MA Final Symposium, New York, NY.
SERVICE TO THE DISCIPLINE
2022 Co-founder and Co-chair of Music/Sound Working Group, Cultural Studies Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, June 2022
2021 Chair, “The Queers Are Revolting: Queer Cultural Labor and Performances of Worldmaking,” American Studies Association Annual Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 2021.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
California State University, Fullerton
Introduction to Black Creative Expression (Fall 2022, Spring 2022)
African American Music Appreciation (Summer 2022, Fall 2021)
Tulane University
Sensational Theories of Bodies and Media (Spring 2021, Fall 2020)
Race, Gender, and Pop Music (Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Fall 2019)
Introduction to Gender & Sexuality Studies (Fall 2020)
Alternative Journalism (Spring 2021, Summer 2020)
University of Texas at Austin
Main Currents in American Culture Since 1865 (Summer 2019)
Teaching Assistantships
Main Currents in American Culture Since 1865 (Spring 2017, Fall 2016)
Main Currents in American Culture to 1865 (Summer 2017)
Introduction to American Studies (Spring 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014)
The United States: 1492-1865 (Spring 2015)
DEPARTMENTAL SERVICE
2021-Present African American Studies Curriculum Committee
2014-2016 American Studies Graduate Student Committee
2015-2016 American Studies Events Committee
2016 Graduate Students-Faculty New Hire Liaison
SELECTED PUBLIC WRITING
2019 “Gimme a Beat: Janet Jackson’s Induction to the Rocky & Roll Hall of Fame is Finally Here,” Bitch Media.
2017 “In Complete Control: SZA’s Album Follows Janet Jackson’s Blueprint,” Bitch Media.
2016 “Synthesized Sounds and Fusion Friendships in Grimes and Janelle Monáe’s ‘Venus Fly,’” In Medias Res.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
2016-present American Studies Association
2016-present National Women’s Studies Association
2013-present GL/Q Caucus for the Modern Languages Association
CONSULTING
2016 Research support on Queer Genius, a documentary by Catherine Pancake.