She received her PhD in Performance Studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in September 2011. Her book project, Hip Hop Heresies: New York City’s Queer Aesthetics, uses critical race theory, hip hop studies, and queer theory to consider how New York City hip hop music, visual art, and film offer “queer articulations” of race, gender, and sexuality. Twitter: @shanteparadigm | Tumbler: shanteparadigm.tumblr.com.