Bio
updated 11.2022
I am a music theorist in coursework for my PhD at Washington University in St. Louis. In the future, I hope to teach students both music theory and the fundamentals of music production at an instiution that trains music students to listen to music critically, perform in a variety of styles, and develop technical competencies as twenty-first century musicians.
As a researcher, I am intersted in the subgenre formation of underground hip-hop in rap’s contemporary moment. During my master’s degree, I worked on a thesis that examined music by artists from the Backwoodz Studioz and Ruby Yacht collectives, using them as a model for theorizing underground hip-hop’s subversion of mainstream narratives concerning identity in hip-hop as a commericial musical genre.
Outside of the classroom, I am an avid movie-watcher and slightly-less-avid leisure reader. I am a big fan of TTRPGs and actual-play podcasts, and I play D&D with a group of friends regularly. I enjoy collecting musical hardware and physical media—especially synths, guitar pedals, and cassettes. More recently, I’ve taken up cooking as a hobby, so stop by for a meal sometime!