Research Focus
My current research examines: notions of global modernity and world systems; intersections of aesthetics and politics in popular culture; celebrity studies; Beyoncé and the intersections of pop and hip-hop; and Black internationalism post-Hurricane Katrina.
I am also interested in upstate New York history and public-facing humanities work, especially regarding abolitionist activity and the Underground Railroad in the Finger Lakes region. I ask how the passing of regressive laws such as the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 reshaped Northerners' relationship to the social, political, and geographical landscape of New York State.
Publications
"William and Frances Seward House," Voices on the Underground Railroad