diff --git a/emmental/path.py b/emmental/path.py
index 304d4be..67df2a0 100644
--- a/emmental/path.py
+++ b/emmental/path.py
@@ -1,9 +1,58 @@
 # Copyright 2022 (c) Anna Schumaker.
 """Extra path handling for URIs."""
 import pathlib
+import threading
 import urllib
 
 
+class ReaddirThread(threading.Thread):
+    """An object to manager asynchronous tree iteration."""
+
+    def __init__(self, directory: pathlib.Path):
+        """Initialize an IterTreeResult."""
+        super().__init__()
+        self.root = directory
+        self._files = []
+        self._lock = threading.Lock()
+        self._stop_event = threading.Event()
+
+    def __read_directory(self, directory: pathlib.Path) -> None:
+        if self._stop_event.is_set():
+            return
+
+        for path in directory.iterdir():
+            if path.is_dir():
+                self.__read_directory(path)
+            else:
+                with self._lock:
+                    self._files.append(path)
+
+    def poll_result(self) -> list[pathlib.Path] | None:
+        """Poll for the result of the IterTreeThread."""
+        with self._lock:
+            if self.is_alive() or len(self._files):
+                files = self._files
+                self._files = []
+                return files
+            return None
+
+    def run(self) -> None:
+        """Run the IterTreeThread."""
+        self.__read_directory(self.root)
+
+    def stop(self) -> None:
+        """Signal the thread to stop."""
+        self._stop_event.set()
+
+
+def readdir_async(directory: pathlib.Path) -> ReaddirThread:
+    """Iterate through a directory tree asynchronously."""
+    if directory.is_dir():
+        res = ReaddirThread(directory)
+        res.start()
+        return res
+
+
 def from_uri(uri: str) -> pathlib.Path:
     """Make a path from a uri."""
     if parsed := urllib.parse.urlparse(uri):
diff --git a/tests/test_path.py b/tests/test_path.py
index bea53a2..eb5e91c 100644
--- a/tests/test_path.py
+++ b/tests/test_path.py
@@ -1,10 +1,79 @@
 # Copyright 2022 (c) Anna Schumaker.
 """Tests our custom Path class."""
 import pathlib
+import threading
 import unittest
+import unittest.mock
 import emmental.path
 
 
+class TestReaddirAsync(unittest.TestCase):
+    """Test reading a directory tree asynchronously."""
+
+    def test_readdir_thread(self):
+        """Test the ReaddirThread object."""
+        thread = emmental.path.ReaddirThread(pathlib.Path("/a/b/c"))
+        self.assertIsInstance(thread, threading.Thread)
+        self.assertIsInstance(thread._lock, type(threading.Lock()))
+        self.assertIsInstance(thread._stop_event, threading.Event)
+        self.assertListEqual(thread._files, [])
+        self.assertEqual(thread.root, pathlib.Path("/a/b/c"))
+
+        self.assertFalse(thread.is_alive())
+
+    def test_readdir_thread_poll_result(self):
+        """Test the ReaddirThread poll_result() function."""
+        thread = emmental.path.ReaddirThread(pathlib.Path("/a/b/c"))
+        with unittest.mock.patch.object(thread, "is_alive",
+                                        return_value=False):
+            self.assertIsNone(thread.poll_result())
+
+        with unittest.mock.patch.object(thread, "is_alive",
+                                        return_value=True):
+            self.assertListEqual(thread.poll_result(), [])
+
+            files = [pathlib.Path("file1.txt"), pathlib.Path("file2.txt")]
+            thread._files = files
+            self.assertListEqual(thread.poll_result(), files)
+            self.assertListEqual(thread._files, [])
+
+    def test_readdir_thread_read_directory(self):
+        """Test reading a directory."""
+        file1 = unittest.mock.Mock(**{"is_dir.return_value": False})
+        file2 = unittest.mock.Mock(**{"is_dir.return_value": False})
+        dir1 = unittest.mock.Mock(**{"is_dir.return_value": True,
+                                     "iterdir.return_value": [file1]})
+        dir2 = unittest.mock.Mock(**{"is_dir.return_value": True,
+                                     "iterdir.return_value": [dir1, file2]})
+
+        thread = emmental.path.ReaddirThread(pathlib.Path("/a/b/c"))
+        thread._ReaddirThread__read_directory(dir2)
+        self.assertListEqual(thread._files, [file1, file2])
+
+    def test_readdir_thread_stop(self):
+        """Test stopping a ReaddirThread."""
+        thread = emmental.path.ReaddirThread(pathlib.Path("/a/b/c/"))
+        thread.stop()
+        self.assertTrue(thread._stop_event.is_set())
+
+        dir = unittest.mock.Mock()
+        dir.iterdir = unittest.mock.Mock(return_value=[])
+        thread._ReaddirThread__read_directory(dir)
+        dir.iterdir.assert_not_called()
+
+    @unittest.mock.patch("emmental.path.ReaddirThread.start")
+    def test_readdir_async(self, mock_start: unittest.mock.Mock):
+        """Test the readdir_async() function."""
+        self.assertIsNone(emmental.path.readdir_async(pathlib.Path("/a/b/")))
+
+        dir = pathlib.Path("/a/b/c")
+        with unittest.mock.patch.object(pathlib.Path, "is_dir",
+                                        return_value=True):
+            thread = emmental.path.readdir_async(dir)
+            self.assertIsInstance(thread, emmental.path.ReaddirThread)
+            mock_start.assert_called()
+
+
 class TestPath(unittest.TestCase):
     """Test our path module."""