About

I am an associate professor in the Department of Performance Studies and faculty member of the Middle Eastern and North African Studies program at Northwestern University. My teaching and scholarship broadly examine the politics and aesthetics of sound, movement, and performance in contemporary SWANA/Middle Eastern cultural production.

My five-time award-winning book, Fraught Balance: The Embodied Politics of Dabke Dance Music in Syria (Wesleyan University Press) is recognized as a standout top book of the field in dance studies, music studies, and Middle East Studies, respectively. Awards for Fraught Balance include: Winner of the 2025 de la Torre Bueno® First Book Award from the Dance Studies Association (DSA); Winner of the Best Book Award from the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies; Honorable Mention for the 2025 Best Book Prize by the International Council on Traditions in Music and Dance (ICTMD); Honorable Mention for the 2025 Ruth Stone Outstanding Monograph in Ethnomusicology by the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM); and Winner of the Keealinohomoku Book Prize by the Dance, Movement, and Gesture Section of SEM. I have also published an award-winning article in the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, an audiography, and numerous other articles and essays.

My research has been supported by the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fulbright Program, along with the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities and the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University. I currently serve on the Editorial Board of Northwestern University Press and the journal Ethnomusicology, and the Editorial Advisory Board for the Sound Studies series of Bloomsbury Press. I also serve as Secretary for the Society for Ethnomusicology and as Co-Chair for the Society for Arab Music Research, among other leadership and advisory positions.

Originally from Spokane (WA), I have studied in New Haven (CT) and Chicago, lived and worked in New York City and Washington D.C., lived in Syria and Lebanon, and am now permanently based in Chicago. I hold a Ph.D in Ethnomusicology from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in History from Yale University. I studied Arabic language at the University of Chicago, Damascus University, and Institut français du Proche-Orient (Damascus), and studied Arab music with Dr. Samer Ali, Dr. Issa Boulos, Wanees Zarour, Nazir Mawas, and many others. In my recreational time, I play violin as often as possible with city ensembles (especially Tayf) and orchestras. And, I enjoy play, travel, and cooking with my partner and kids.

writings

talks & conferences

teaching & advising

arts practice & studies

Education

Ph.D. University of Chicago, Ethnomusicology

B.A. Yale University, History

Selected Awards and Fellowships

2025 de la Torre Bueno First Book Award (Dance Studies Association)

2023 AMS 75 PAYS Book Subvention (American Musicological Society)

2022 Marcia Herndon Article Award (Gender and Sexualities Section of the Society for Ethnomusicology)

2018 Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities Faculty Fellowship, Northwestern University