As an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, I conducted fieldwork at the Gnaoua and World Music Festival in Essaouira, Morocco. Through that project, I asked how festival organizers reimagine Morocco’s relationship with other regions in Africa and connect Gnaoua music to its sub-Saharan roots. As a joint PhD student in Music and Anthropology, my research initially focused on questions of musical preservation in Mexico, but preliminary work in Mexico City has led me to pursue a dissertation project that takes the sonic as an entrypoint to study urban life in Mexico City.