Shayna Silverstein

Shayna Silverstein is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Performance Studies at Northwestern University. She specializes in the politics and aesthetics of sound, movement, and performance in the contemporary Middle East, particularly focusing on South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA). Her research examines how sonic and performative practices articulate social, political, and cultural dynamics, with a focus on Syria and the diaspora.

Education: PhD in Ethnomusicology from the University of Chicago (2012), BA in History from Yale University (2000). She has held fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, NEH, and Fulbright programs.

Research Interests: Dance studies, sound studies, MENA Studies, ethnography, and social theory. Her book Fraught Balance: The Embodied Politics of Dabke Dance Music in Syria (2024) explores how Syrian dabke dance music shapes societal structures and conflict. She also investigates diasporic performances and sonic praxis in global contexts.

Awards: Includes the Marcia Herndon Article Award (2022), AMS Book Subvention (2023), and Kaplan Institute Fellowship (2018-19). She serves on editorial boards for Northwestern University Press, Bloomsbury’s Sound Studies series, and the Society for Ethnomusicology.

Teaching: Courses include Sound Cultures, Sonic Practices of the Middle East, and Sound Ethnography. She integrates performance pedagogy with critical theory.

Labs/Teams: Core faculty in Northwestern’s Program in Middle East and North African Studies. Collaborates with interdisciplinary research groups on sound and migration, and co-authored works on race-making in Egyptian, Syrian, and German cultures.