Shayna Silverstein is Assistant Professor in the Department of Performance Studies. Silverstein’s research examines the politics and aesthetics of sound and movement in the contemporary Middle East with a focus on Syrian popular culture. She is currently completing a book manuscript on the performance of masculinity in public life through Syrian dance music that demonstrates the paradoxical dynamics of gender and nationhood in an authoritarian state. She is also developing a project on the performance and production of dignity in relation to Syrian experiences of war and displacement. Her teaching interests include embodiment, ethnographic methods, ethnomusicology, social theory, sound studies, and Middle Eastern studies. She has previously taught at Dartmouth College, Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania. She performs on ‘ud and violin.