(MM in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the Hochschule für Musik, Köln, Germany 1995 with a thesis on "Traditional Forms of Music Making in the Cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa"; Certificate in African Studies from the Institute of African Studies at Columbia with a final research paper on "Cultural Nationalism in Guinea and Les Ballets Africains; 1947-1967;" MA and MPhil in Ethnomusicology from Columbia) wrote an MA thesis at Columbia entitled "African Dance in New York City - Constructing and Negotiating Identities"; MPhil 2002). Her areas of interest are West Africa and Afghanistan. She is currently conducting dissertation field research on urban popular music in Togo, West Africa. She served as TA for the Asian Music Humanities and the Western Music Humanities courses at Columbia, as well as an editorial assistant for the ICTM UNESCO collection project.
Email: ms829@columbia.edu