She teaches courses in contemporary African American literature, American studies and cultural studies. Her research interests include 20th and 21st century African American literary, social and cultural history, psychoanalytic culture, and visual and memory studies. Ahad’s first book, Freud Upside Down: African American Literature and Psychoanalytic Culture was published as part of the New Black Studies Series at the University of Illinois Press (2010). Currently, she is at work on a book manuscript that considers the ways 21st century African-American visual and culinary artists, writers and performers represent the history of black radicalism. When she's not working she enjoys trying new restaurants, playing golf (or at least attempting to), road cycling, and winning at UNO with her husband and two stepchildren.