Emily R. Bock is a cultural anthropologist whose research is situated at the intersection of black studies, queer theory, performance studies, ethnography, and ethics. Their current book project explores the contemporary ballroom scene, an underground, predominantly black, queer performance community, in Chicago and New York, and considers how people strive to imagine and secure existence beyond mere survival within an ordinary haunted by anti-black and anti-queer violences. This research tracks the practices for living that emerge from performances and presentations that experiment with and against normative US practices and values and asks how these practices elaborate an alternative narrative arc and structure to the American dream. They teach courses in gender and sexuality studies and black studies.