Jamilah is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at Concordia University, specialising in critical race, gender and popular music studies. She holds an Honors Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of Toronto and a Master of Arts degree in Sociology from Concordia University. She first became fascinated by the interconnectedness of social interactions while working as a research assistant for Dr. Neda Maghbouleh, Dr. Luisa Schwartzman at UofT and interning as a research analyst for the City of Mississauga.  Informed by an intersectional framework, her research interests center around complexifying one-dimensional accounts of social life ranging from mothering, disadvantaged youth, hip-hop, black masculinity, black feminism, decoloniality and emotionality. Her master’s thesis titled ‘Rap and Modern Love: Intimate Masculinity in Mainstream Rap’ broadens how we think about black men by reconceptualizing the hip-hop culture and how it represents black male emotions and vulnerabilities within romantic relationships. As such, her doctoral project titled ‘Decolonizing Hip-Hop: Reframing Black Masculinity around Community Engagement and Empowerment’ funded by the 2019 Joseph Bombardier Armand Doctoral Award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, seeks to further this decolonial endeavour by documenting the innovations and progressive contribution of black men to the Canadian social fabric. Her doctoral research will be disseminated as a documentary that is grounded in making scholarship and media more representative of black male identities, emotionality and civic contribution just as it seeks to historicise the detrimental consequences of their social exclusion. Her research has been crucially informed by her classical and jazz training as a vocalist and composer. As such, she prioritizes the use of art within her research; the incorporation of visual and auditory methods to engage experientially and ideologically with others.