An Assistant Professor in Theatre and Africana Studies at SUNY Buffalo State College, Ansari has merged artistry and scholarship to build and create works through community and collaborative processes that facilitate conversations on race and Black performance. Her most recent project and a forthcoming book, Choreographies of Black Women Joy, focuses on the performance of joy through the creative archiving of oral histories, movement histories, live-performance, and film. Ansari is currently the Dance Director for Ujima Company, Inc. selected by the late Lorna C. Hill and the producer for THIS LOVE THING project presented by the Inner- City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) out of Chicago, IL.