Her research areas are youth of color, LGBTQ identity and sexuality, social movement activism, and popular culture. She specializes in queer theory and feminist ethnography. Her book, The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back: Youth Activism and Post-Civil Rights Politics (NYU Press, 2012) explores how youth of color organize and identify as activists in the post civil rights era. Her articles on hip-hop culture, queer sexuality, youth activism, and hip-hop feminism have appeared in several anthologies and academic journals, including Home Girls Make Some Noise!: A Hip-Hop Feminist Anthology, the American Behavioral Scientist, and Meridians: A Journal of Race, Feminism, and Transnationalism.