After graduating from Vassar with a major in Urban Studies and working as an Administrative Fellow for the Dean of the College during the 2019/2020 academic year, I matriculated to Virginia Tech’s sociology department to start a master’s degree in Fall 2021. (Definitely influenced by some amazing folks in Vassar’s sociology department!)

In spring 2022, I defended my master’s thesis proposal titled “Country Quares: (Dis)identification Discourse in Black Country Aesthetic.” Inspired by the methods and grounding point of Black music as a historical document from my undergraduate thesis at Vassar, I decided to reach further into the Black American musical cultural bag and focus my master’s thesis on how Black women and queer musicians use country music as a complication and reclamation of (Black) Americanness, looking specifically at music videos and how identity is asserted through the visuals and the music itself.

After finishing my masters in Spring 2023, I’ll be moving on to the PhD program!