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)
Ph.D, School of Arts and Sciences Department of History, University of Pennsylvania (2025)
Race, gender, and social hierarchy.
Modernity and legal traditions.
African and Middle Eastern 19th-21st c. history.