She is broadly interested in how sound and listening shape notions of self and other, and how this informs relations between people and with nonhuman others. Emily's dissertation project traced musical instruments along trajectories of migration from the colonial Dutch East Indies to Suriname to the contemporary "multicultural" Netherlands. Her recent work focuses on the contemporary stewardship of archives of colonial media and the potentials of digital archives and digital tools for critical research.

Recent activities include serving as a postdoctoral researcher on the project “Polyvocal Interpretations of Contested Colonial Heritage” (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam/Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid) and as guest editor of an issue of The World of Music on the theme “Audibilities of Colonialism and Extractivism.”

Emily joined the Media Studies department of the University of Amsterdam in January 2023 as Assistant Professor of Contested Archives, Media and Memory.