My research interests include Caribbean music, music of the Caribbean diaspora, childhood music, world music pedagogy, nationalism, neoliberalism, and race.
I am currently preparing my first monograph, tentatively titled The Entangled Spirit of the Carnivalesque: Competing Conceptions of Junior Panorama, which will be an extension of my PhD dissertation. This work highlights the annual Junior Panorama steelband competition and analyzes the nexus of influences at play within youth-oriented music spaces. I argue that local community ensembles, private corporations, and the Trinidadian government have all cultivated a vested interested in the youth competition, and these competing influences have dictated the development of the competition throughout its history.
In addition to my upcoming monograph, I have published articles on youth steelpan and steelpan in educational settings in Ethnic and Racial Studies (2025), The Journal of Festival Culture Inquiry and Analysis (2024), and Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education (2022). I also have a forthcoming chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Children’s Musical Cultures, Vol. 2, expected to be published in 2028. Beyond my primary research work with steelpan in Trinidad and the United States, I am also currently working on additional research projects on soca responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and reggae/dancehall as decolonial orchestral programing.
Across these works, I aim to utilize a wide number of methodological strategies to expand traditional understandings of musicological research, aiming to prioritize new and unique perspectives. My work applies theories and methods from both ethnomusicology and historical musicology to include textual archival analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, and performance and musical analysis.
My work has been recognized with several awards and grants, including the Society for American Music Margery Lowens Dissertation Research Fellowship, the Sigma Alpha Iota Philanthropies Inc. Doctoral Grant, the Society for Ethnomusicology Education Section Elizabeth May Slater paper prize, and the Society for Ethnomusicology Southeastern and Caribbean Section Dale Olsen paper prize.
Publications
Refereed Journal Articles
2025. “Every Creed and Race Find an Equal Place: Understandings of Race in Junior Panorama.” Ethnic and Racial Studies, Online Publication, 1-19. (Physical Publication Expected 2026) https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2025.2555492
2024. “I Found a Home Here: Networks, Scenes, and Safe Spaces in Junior Panorama.” Journal of Festival Culture Inquiry and Analysis 3(1): 88-101.
2022. “Playing with a Different Beat: The Whitening of American Steelband.” Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education 21(2): 182-196. https://doi.org/10.22176/act21.2.182
Upcoming and Recent Conference Presentations
2027 “Oil Culture and Junior Panorama,” Society for American Music Annual Conference, Buffalo, NY, March 10-14.
2026 Ethnomusicology and Music Teaching and Learning, Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference, Bloomington, IN, November 5-8
2026 “Neoliberalism and Prestige Schools in Trinidad and Tobago’s School’s Panorama,” International Society for Music Education World Conference, Montreal, Canada, July 26-31.
2026 “Mr. Symphonic in the Palace: Reggae and Dancehall as Decolonial Orchestral Programing,” Society for American Music Annual Conference, Richmond, VA, March 11-15.
2025 “Girlhood on Stage: Navigating Girls’ Ensembles in Trinidad and Tobago’s School Panorama,” Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA, October 22-26.
2025 “Judging and Scoring in Trinidad and Tobago’s Junior Panorama Steelband Competition,” Education Section Workshop, Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA, October 22-26.
2024 “Every Creed and Race Find an Equal Place: National Understandings of Race in Trinidad and Tobago’s Junior Panorama,” Society for Ethnomusicology, Virtual Conference, October 17-26.
2024 “Come Home to Me: Vaccine Nationalism and the Trinidadian Diaspora,” Society for American Music Annual Conference, Detroit, MI, March 20-24.
