Class of 2026
Hometown: Greensboro, North Carolina
Major: English
Minor: Music—Listening Focused
Mellon Project: Sonic Cartography: Soundscapes of the Past, Present, and Future
In an interview with “The Creative Independent,” Saidiya Hartman states that to live in the present moment is to also feel a “sense of temporal entanglement, where the past, the present, and the future are not discrete and cut off from one another […] rather we live the simultaneity of that entanglement.” My project theorizes how diasporic artists mediate this temporal entanglement by invoking the idea of “sonic cartography,” a method of mapping narrative through sound that is informed by the afterlives of historical and geographical time. What is the potential of sonic cartography to re-member migration, involuntary and voluntary, by sonically charting diasporic relationships to desire, memory, and place? Sonic cartography extends that liminal space where sound can simultaneously connect the artist to the past—a transmutation that returns them metaphorically to their homeland—and carve out a space in the present, all while charting new territory in the imagined future. I'm interested in how this map to find a way to the past and to the future is already embedded within the work of art itself.
Academic Interests: diasporic art; sound studies; Southern literature; feminist philosophy; American theatre; blues and jazz
Brief Bio: In the future, I hope to pursue a PhD in English and am interested in the ways literature and music can enhance each other when used in tandem. If you don't find me breaking out of an escape room, I'm most likely playing flute or on the hunt for Durham's best sweet treats (suggestions appreciated).