I was born and grew up in New York City; as an adult I've lived there, in the Bay Area, in Durham, NC, and in Philadelphia and its suburbs. I'm a Professor of English at Haverford College, where I teach interdisciplinary courses on 19th and 20th-century U. S. culture; I'm especially interested in music, sound, and race. I've published in many scholarly journals and have forthcoming pieces in Public Books and Al Jazeera.