She earned her BA from the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs and Public Policy at Princeton University with certificates in African Studies, African American Studies, and Woman & Gender Studies. At the University of Pennsylvania, she obtained her PhD in African History with a certificate in Africana Studies. Her current book project is entitled Witnessing for Freedom: Nationalism & Liberation in The African Orthodox Church of South Africa. It examines the ways South Africans relied on the African Orthodox Church as a forum from to examines questions of freedom for themselves and other black people worldwide. This historical account which begins in the late 19th century and ends in the late 20th century, links together the political ambitions of South African Ethiopianism, American Garveyism, and East African radicalism.