I was born in Boston, USA, and grew up in Thessaloniki, where I began my studies in classical piano at the Conservatory Music College and attended the Music School of Thessaloniki. After moving to Athens at the age of sixteen, I continued my music studies at the Athens Conservatoire and the Conservatory Mousikos Syndesmos. I completed my undergraduate studies at the Department of Music Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) in 2009, after which I moved abroad to pursue studies in Social Anthropology, with an emphasis on the Anthropology of Music/Ethnomusicology. I completed my MA and PhD degrees in 2010 and 2015 respectively at Queen’s University Belfast, where I also taught in the Departments of Anthropology and Music between 2013 and 2016.
In 2018, I began postdoctoral research as a fellow of the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), conducting fieldwork in Brazil, Nigeria, the United Kingdom and social media; this research was completed in 2020. From 2021 to early 2024, I served as a Lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of Manchester. I was appointed Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology in the School of Music Studies at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in September 2024.
My research trajectory initially focused on issues of migration and identity, centering on professional Nigerian musicians in Greece, whom I followed in the research context of my MA studies. During my doctoral fieldwork in Greece, my focus shifted toward religious communities of Nigerian origins, exploring questions surrounding the role of gospel music in worship and in issues of identity and belonging during a period of intense discrimination and targeting of migrant communities — namely, that of the economic crisis.
My postdoctoral research constituted an extension of my doctoral work, posing similar questions regarding migrant communities of Nigerian origin in Brazil and the United Kingdom, in juxtaposition with communities in Nigeria. At the same time, it focused on how music, sound, the body, and text form integral components of spiritual experience in both physical and digital environments of worship and community negotiation.
Central foci of my research include concepts such as diaspora and locality; popular religious music and culture; spirituality and transcendental experience; epistemological issues in ethnographic research with an emphasis on multi-sited ethnography, ethnographic positionality and naming; and processes such as the construction/constitution of the research field and subject. My research contributions to these issues draw on two interdisciplinary projects based in Brazil, in which I was fortunate to participate actively: Local Musicking: New Pathways for Ethnomusicology, led by Principal Investigator Suzel Ana Reily, and Subject Constitution in African Contexts: Differentiation, Iteration, Intersectionality, led by Principal Investigator Iracema Dulley.
My publications appear in English, Greek, and Portuguese in journals such as Ethnography, Popular Music and Society, Social Analysis, and Mana, as well as in edited volumes including The Routledge Companion to the Study of Local Musicking, SAGE Research Methods Foundations, Taking Part in Music: Case Studies in Ethnomusicology, and Musical Communities in 21st-Century Greece: Ethnographic Perspectives and Listenings.
I have taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in ethnomusicology, anthropology, and performance, with an emphasis on historical and contemporary themes and research methodologies, as well as musical traditions of the Balkans, West Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia, among others. My teaching experience also includes the development of Nigerian gospel music ensembles.
I have been actively involved — either as a presenter or as a conference organizer — in associations such as the British Forum for Ethnomusicology, the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance, the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance Ireland, and the European Seminar in Ethnomusicology, as well as, more recently, the Association of Social Anthropologists of Greece and the newly established International Research Collective for the Study of Popular Music in Greece (PMGIRC).
Finally, I have been an active reviewer for academic journals and publishers such as Ethnomusicology Forum, Ethnography, Popular Music and Society, Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa, Mousikos Logos, and Bloomsbury Academic.
I was born in Boston, USA, and grew up in Thessaloniki, where I began my studies in classical piano at the Conservatory Music College and attended the Music School of Thessaloniki. After moving to Athens at the age of sixteen, I continued my music studies at the Athens Conservatoire and the Conservatory Mousikos Syndesmos. I completed my undergraduate studies at the Department of Music Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) in 2009, after which I moved abroad to pursue studies in Social Anthropology, with an emphasis on the Anthropology of Music/Ethnomusicology. I completed my MA and PhD degrees in 2010 and 2015 respectively at Queen’s University Belfast, where I also taught in the Departments of Anthropology and Music between 2013 and 2016.
In 2018, I began postdoctoral research as a fellow of the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), conducting fieldwork in Brazil, Nigeria, the United Kingdom and social media; this research was completed in 2020. From 2021 to early 2024, I served as a Lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of Manchester. I was appointed Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology in the School of Music Studies at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in September 2024.
My research trajectory initially focused on issues of migration and identity, centering on professional Nigerian musicians in Greece, whom I followed in the research context of my MA studies. During my doctoral fieldwork in Greece, my focus shifted toward religious communities of Nigerian origins, exploring questions surrounding the role of gospel music in worship and in issues of identity and belonging during a period of intense discrimination and targeting of migrant communities — namely, that of the economic crisis.
My postdoctoral research constituted an extension of my doctoral work, posing similar questions regarding migrant communities of Nigerian origin in Brazil and the United Kingdom, in juxtaposition with communities in Nigeria. At the same time, it focused on how music, sound, the body, and text form integral components of spiritual experience in both physical and digital environments of worship and community negotiation.
Central foci of my research include concepts such as diaspora and locality; popular religious music and culture; spirituality and transcendental experience; epistemological issues in ethnographic research with an emphasis on multi-sited ethnography, ethnographic positionality and naming; and processes such as the construction/constitution of the research field and subject. My research contributions to these issues draw on two interdisciplinary projects based in Brazil, in which I was fortunate to participate actively: Local Musicking: New Pathways for Ethnomusicology, led by Principal Investigator Suzel Ana Reily, and Subject Constitution in African Contexts: Differentiation, Iteration, Intersectionality, led by Principal Investigator Iracema Dulley.
My publications appear in English, Greek, and Portuguese in journals such as Ethnography, Popular Music and Society, Social Analysis, and Mana, as well as in edited volumes including The Routledge Companion to the Study of Local Musicking, SAGE Research Methods Foundations, Taking Part in Music: Case Studies in Ethnomusicology, and Musical Communities in 21st-Century Greece: Ethnographic Perspectives and Listenings.
I have taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in ethnomusicology, anthropology, and performance, with an emphasis on historical and contemporary themes and research methodologies, as well as musical traditions of the Balkans, West Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia, among others. My teaching experience also includes the development of Nigerian gospel music ensembles.
I have been actively involved — either as a presenter or as a conference organizer — in associations such as the British Forum for Ethnomusicology, the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance, the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance Ireland, and the European Seminar in Ethnomusicology, as well as, more recently, the Association of Social Anthropologists of Greece and the newly established International Research Collective for the Study of Popular Music in Greece (PMGIRC).
Finally, I have been an active reviewer for academic journals and publishers such as Ethnomusicology Forum, Ethnography, Popular Music and Society, Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa, Mousikos Logos, and Bloomsbury Academic.