My research focuses on blackness in Arabic-speaking contexts on the African continent and its diasporas abroad, through the lens of my broader interest in race and critical history. In my forthcoming thesis project - tentatively titled The Colors of the Earth: Blackness in 1930s Egypt - I explore the emergence of a racial project of modernity in interwar Egyptian popular culture and media, placing Egypt in the context of the international color line. This research is informed by my past studies, where I have investigated Afro-Arab identity in gendered Islamic legal doctrines in the 19th century, commented on Sudanese and African American exchanges in the 20th century, and enjoyed writing about anime in the Arabic-speaking diaspora in the 21st century.
I am the curator of the #SudanSyllabus open project, focusing on Sudanese social, cultural, and intellectual history.
Advisor: Eve Troutt-Powell
B.A., International Comparative Studies and Political Science, Duke University (2018)
Race, gender, and social hierarchy.
Modernity and legal traditions.
African and Middle Eastern 19th-21st c. history.