I am an ethnographer, musician, and writer. I am also a Lecturer in Ethnomusicology at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. I previously taught at Carleton College and UC Berkeley, and I hold a research affiliation with the Centre for Research in Ethnomusicology at the Université Paris Nanterre.

My research examines how music intersects with a global humanitarian industry. My current project, The Aurality of Displacement: Hearing Humanitarianism and Migration to Jordan, focuses on listening and musical practices in the wake of over a century of forced migration to Jordan. This work received four awards from the Society for Ethnomusicology: 2025 Elizabeth May Slater Prize, 2022 Charles Seeger Prize, 2021 RMSS Student Paper Prize, and 2019 Marnie Dilling Prize. My two years of fieldwork in Jordan were supported by Fulbright-Hays, the American Center of Research in Jordan (ACOR), and UC Berkeley’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. My next project shifts to France (pictured here), where I have studied Algerian Andalusian musical traditions on oud.

My courses cover broad topics in ethnomusicology, including ethnographic methods, introductions to ethnomusicology and “world music,” displacement, humanitarianism, the U.S./Mexico border, cross-cultural perspectives on digital media, and music in Southwest Asia and North Africa. I am also experimenting with bringing AI music tools into the classroom.

I received my MA and PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of California, Berkeley, and my BA in music from the University of Chicago. I was also a fellow at the American University in Cairo’s Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) from 2017–2018.

My other interests include tv, games (video, board, and otherwise), crochet, and all things sourdough.