Current Projects
Sonic Spaces of Non-Hierarchy (Collaboration with Clay Odom, School of Architecture UT Austin)
Sonic Spaces of Non-Hierarchy starts with the question how do we explore the creation and design of equitable temporal environments within cities? City spaces in their design offer both possibilities and limitations. Projects of new urbanism promise accessible space yet often reproduce old sets of social hierarchies. In this project we are interested in examining liminal spaces that create opportunities that empower people to interact across differences and borders. This project seeks to synthesize the political, urban, and cultural using techniques of ethnography and design. We see this project as having the potential to help us redefine borders and new spatial conditions as synthetic networks of cultural landscapes. Looking particularly at leisure spaces related to music cultures we seek to identify and observe a set of emergent practices that are portable, spatial, and temporal. Examples include pop-ups, virtual spaces, and underground clubs.
Black Queer (Dis)belonging in South Africa
This study examines how Black LGBTQ populations in South Africa re-imagine cultural practices and cultural politics in order to forge new practices of (dis)belonging in contemporary South Africa. While legal codes support Black LGBTQ populations in South Africa, cultural codes of belonging are often spaces of alienation. Examining how Black LGBTQ populations confront this dissonance provides an opportunity to imagine what the promises of equality post-apartheid can look like for some of the most marginalized citizens of South Africa.