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I received my PhD in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge. I also hold an MPhil in social anthropology from Cambridge, an MA in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame, and a BA in Global Studies and Religion & Culture from WLU.
Prior to joining Laurier, I held postdoctoral positions at Cambridge and Northumbria in the UK. I have also worked domestically and internationally with several peace-building and arts organisations, including Project Ploughshares (Waterloo), Kayd Somali Arts and Culture (London, UK), the Hargeysa Cultural Centre (Somaliland), and the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Hargeysa (Somaliland).
I am an ethnographic researcher and writer interested in how popular forms of art and practices of voicing are entangled in processes of sociopolitical transformation, especially in the wake of violence. Put another way, I am interested in the ways that stories, poetry and song – as language and sound – shape how people relate to themselves and others, with a focus on the political and affective affordances of "the voice" as a sonic-social phenomenon.
Since 2013, my research focus has been Somaliland, where I have worked with poets, musicians, singers and cultural activists to understand the power of oral poetry and song to shape both everyday intimate relationships and state-level processes of social and political change. More recently, I have been working with diaspora Somali artists based in the UK.
My research builds on my interdisciplinary training in social anthropology and peace studies, and a longstanding practice-informed interest in the role of storytelling in war and peace-building processes.
- International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance Book Prize (2024)
- Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellowship (2019-2024)
- SSHRC & Cambridge International Trust Doctoral Fellowship
- Gates Cambridge Scholarship
- 2026. "Poetic Justice? An introduction to Miimley, a contemporary Somali poetry debate." Africa (Local Intellectuals Series)
- 2025. "Thinking through voice with a Somali (love doctor) poet." Medicine Anthropology Theory, 12(2): 1-12.
- 2024. "Poetry's political future(s): deliberating democracy and justice in Somaliland." Nordic Journal of African Studies, 33(2): 16-30.
- 2023. Love Songs in Motion: Voicing Intimacy in Somaliland. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- 2022. "Listening to love: love songs, vocal iconicity and intimacy in Somaliland." American Ethnologist, 49(2): 178-190.
- 2021. "'Out of Time' and 'Out of Tune': Reflections of an Oud Apprentice in Somaliland." Ethnomusicology, 65(2), 259-285.
- 2018. "Singing love in(to) Somaliland: Love songs, 'heritage preservation', and the making of post-war publics." In Music and Dance in Eastern Africa: Current Research in Humanities and Social Sciences (edited by K Kiiru and M Mutonya). IFRA/Twaweza Communications
- 2016. "Education and extraversion: naming, valuing and contesting 'modern' and 'indigenous' knowledge in Somaliland." Journal of Eastern African Studies, 10(3): 413-433.
- An interview with Ibrahim Osman about Love Songs in Motion for Geeska
- An interview with Amina Isir (Isirka Podcast) about Love Songs in Motion
- An interview with Amanda Weidman about Love Songs in Motion, for CaMP
- Universities must protect PhDs doing risky fieldwork: here's how. Op-Ed in The Guardian (co-authored with Corinna Howland)
- Warsan Shire on A Nation of Poets, BBC Radio 4
- A conversation about voice and poetis responsibility, with Xasan Daahir Ismaaciil (Weedhsame), for Artery
- Hiddo Dhawr: Singing love in(to) Somaliland, for Camthropod
- Love Songs in Motion companion website
- Sweet as Broken Dates: Lost Tapes from the Somali Horn (Ostinato Records)