I studied Music at the University of Surrey and for a Masters in Musicology at Oxford before writing my PhD at Kingston University London, supervised by Prof Emeritus Allan Moore and Prof Isabella van Elferen. My thesis, on empowerment in rap and metal music listening, laid the groundwork for my first monograph How Music Empowers. The book combines theories of embodiment and power alongside popular music analysis to better understand the relationship between listening and social change.

After my doctorate, I developed an academic department to support six practice-oriented undergraduate music and media degrees (accredited by University of Sussex) at BIMM Institute, Brighton. In 2020, I was awarded a MSCA fellowship at University College Cork, which informs my book-in-progress Digital Flows (under contract with Oxford University Press), on internet-based hip hop music and culture.

I started at Bristol in 2022 on a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship, researching live online popular music performance: virtual concerts, ‘bedroom’ music livestreamers, and all kinds of digitally mediated performance in-between.

I am a board member and webmaster for the International Society for Metal Music Studies and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Music Studies network.