Ameera Nimjee

Ameera Nimjee (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Music. Her primary research is on the study of citizenship, race, and gender in transnational South Asian performance cultures. Ameera is currently at work on two larger projects: on creativity in South Asian contemporary dance economies and performance traditions that have accompanied the migration of Muslims through South Asia, East Africa, and North America. Her work has been published in the journals Ethnologies and Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, and has been funded by fellowships and prizes from the American Council of Learned Studies, Society for Ethnomusicology, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Ameera has also contributed book chapters to various edited volumes on the topics of kathak dance, Bollywood fitness, and South Asian American weddings. She holds a PhD and MA in Ethnomusicology from the University of Chicago and University of Toronto, respectively, and a BMus also from the University of Toronto. Ameera performs often as a kathak dancer, and remains a member of Toronto-based Chhandam Dance Company under the continued tutelage of her teacher Joanna de Souza. She joins Yale from the University of Puget Sound, where she was Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology in the School of Music and in Asian Studies. 

Photo credit: Sy Bean