She holds a PhD in African Languages and Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her training includes specialization in oral traditions in history and literature in Africa. She has done fieldwork in Nigeria and Morocco, and has also worked in Sierra-Leone, the Ivory Coast, and Guinea-Conakry. Much of her research focuses on the relationship between women and power in Africa, and her book, Muslim Women Sing: Hausa Womens Scholarship and Song in Contemporary Northern Nigeria, is forthcoming from Indiana University Press.