Zanfagna's research explores music’s relationship to religion, race, and geography in urban America. She teaches courses on hip hop cultures, pop music and race, global music, flamenco history, social theory, and ethnography. 

Her writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including Stranger’s Guide, The Beat, Journal of Popular Music Studies, Black Music Research Journal, The Oxford Handbook of Mobile Music and Sound Studies, The Cambridge Companion to Hip Hop, Carnegie Hall’s Timeline of African American Music, and Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas, among others. In her book, Holy Hip Hop in the City of Angels (UC Press, 2017), she explores the cultural politics of gospel rap in Los Angeles.

Zanfagna earned a bachelor's degree in performance studies and African American studies from New York University, and a master's and Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from UCLA.