My educational journey has not been a straight line, as I've traveled through the worlds of music, librarianship, childhood studies, animal studies, and Black history—often in combination. In that time, I've published articles and presented at conferences in a variety of settings, learning how to share, translate, and create knowledge across the arts and humanities. ​

Publications & Conference Presentations

Publications
  • “Girl Scout Contrafacta and Symbolic Soldiering in the Great War.” American Music 35, no. 3 (2017): 375–411.
  • “Children’s Bird Songs, the Rhetoric of Conservation, and Politics of the Voice in the United States, 1900–1930.” In Childhood and Pethood in Literature and Culture: New Perspectives in Childhood Studies and Animal Studies, ed. Anna Feuerstein and Carmen Nolte-Odhiambo. New York: Routledge, 2018.
  • “Preschoolers.” In Youth Cultures in America. Edited by Simon Bronner and Cindy Dell Clark. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2016.
  • Review. The Oxford Handbook of Children’s Musical Cultures, ed. Patricia Shehan Campbell and Trevor Wiggins. MusiCultures 42, no. 2 (2015): 106–108. 

Presentations
  • "Living with Animals: MOVE and Multi-Species Liberation"
    • Communal Studies Association Conference, 2021 September
  • “‘The People who Catch Cats, Brush Dogs, and Clean Kennels’: Centering Black Labor in Philadelphia’s Animal Welfare Praxis"
    • ​Virtual: James A. Barnes Club Graduate History Conference, 2020 March
    • Second Prize, U.S. History category
  • "Libraries as Symbolic American Music Spaces in the Great Depression”       
    • Society for American Music. Montréal, QC, Canada, 2017 March                     
  • "Childhood Studies with a Musical Ear: A Case Study in Girl Scouting and Guiding.” 
    • Reimagining the Child Graduate Conference. Camden, NJ, 2016 April
  • “Canaries, Chirps, and Thrushes: Closer Hearings of the Jazz Aviary.” 
    • ​Locations and Dislocations: An Ecomusicological Conversation. Princeton, NJ, 2016 April
    • Feminist Theory and Music. Madison, WI, 2015 August 
  •  “Childhood and American Music” seminar panel. 
    • ​Coordinator and Chair, Society for American Music. Sacramento, CA, 2015 March
  • “‘Why Don’t You Raise Your Girl to be a Girl Scout?’: World War I Contrafacta in The Rally.” 
    • ​The Music of War: 1914–1918. British Library, London, UK, 2014 August
    • Society for American Music. Lancaster, PA , 2014 March
  • “‘I’m Going to Raise My Boy to be a Soldier’: The Strong Mother in WWI Popular Song.” 
    • Society for American Music. Charlotte, NC, 2012 March  
  • “The Female Voice(s) in Ousmane Sembène’s Moolaadé.” 
    • ​​Jackobsen Graduate Student Conference. Iowa City, IA, 2011 March. 1st Prize winner, Arts & Research category.​

Public History 

Animal Studies & Black History

My dissertation, "Care and Control: Black Philadelphians and the Animal City After World War II" focused on the roles Black Philadelphians—be they pet owners, veterinarians, SPCA professionals, and radicals (MOVE)—played in supporting, improving, and managing animal life (mainly pets) in the city in the second half of the twentieth century. For more about this research, please check out animalsinblacklife.com.
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For my dissertation, in additional to archival research, I interviewed pet owners, self-described "animal lovers," and professionals in animal health and control.

Animal Studies & Black History Snapshot

  • "Care and Control: Black Philadelphians and the Animal City After World War II." PhD Dissertation in History, 2024
  • Summer Animal Studies Institute: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2017 

Music

Although I have left the stage in recent years in favor of the quieter work of libraries, archives, and museums, I have maintained my connection to music. Since 2020, I have collaborated with Minneapolis-based musician and community organizer José Antonio Zayas Cabán, writing grant proposals, program notes, album essays, and liner notes. ​​
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Album cover for Romance al Campesino Porteño, 2023.

Music Writing Snapshot

​Editing & Writing Tutoring

I have experience with line editing and developmental writing in academic scholarship, including for book-length projects. Please Contact me for editing queries.

Editing Snapshot

  • University of Delaware Press (Newark, DE): Editorial Assistant. 2020–2021
  • Sloth: Journal of Emerging Voices in Human-Animal Studies: Copy editor. 2017–2020
  • Writing Center Resources Presentation & Scholarly Publication Panel    
    • University of Iowa School of Library and Information Science Proseminar, 2016 September​
  • Writing Center Tutor (University of Iowa): ​2023–2013 & 2015–2017
  • North American Review (Cedar Falls, IA): Publishing Intern. Summer 2010

​About the Photo
A screenshot from my dissertation defense, 2024.
​Credit and thanks to TK Smith:  www.tksmith106.com.
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