Nour El Rayes is a Ph.D. student in Ethnomusicology, with a Designated Emphasis in New Media. Her dissertation research examines constructions of the “alternative” in music in Lebanon in order to understand its role in the creation and articulation of alternative social, political, and economic futures. El Rayes also studies Middle Eastern percussion, and performs Arabic classical music with Zawaya’s Aswat ensemble, and Berkeley’s Disoriental.