Baljit’s doctoral research was an ethnographic study of young people’s lived experiences of violence and resistance in East London, and the way in which these stories are narrated through rap music. Her postdoctoral research titled: Mapping ‘the Streets’: Young Female Rappers and Violence in East London’ extends her PhD study by developing the spatial dimension of gendered everyday urban violence, as it is lived by young women, and produced through rap.
Baljit’s PhD in Cultural Studies is from the University of Sussex (CHASE AHRC funded). At Sussex, Baljit co-organised a community project titled: ‘Love, Care and Mutual Aid: Resisting State Violence and Reliance’. The project sought to create space for meaningful dialogue around gendered violence and mutual aid during the Covid-19 lockdowns. This was followed by a second project titled ‘Resist’, which similarly drew on principles of resistance to violence, community and care. Currently, Baljit is co-organising an Abolitionist book club with the Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies.
Baljit has two articles forthcoming in leading publications on sound, music and society. This includes a chapter on young people’s production of rap music in the neoliberal youth club in Sonic Rebellions: Sound & Social Justice (Routledge 2023), and young women, rap and violence in Dissonant Sounds: Diaspora, Technology, Culture and Politics (Bloomsbury 2024).