I am a PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of Florida, where I am a National Science Foundation IGERT Fellow in the Adaptive Management of Water, Wetlands, and Watersheds program. My advisor is Dr. Brenda Chalfin. I hold a MA in anthropology from UF (2008) and a BA in anthropology with minor in geological and environmental sciences from Stanford University (2002).

Research

I am a cultural anthropologist with specialization in environmental and political anthropology. I investigate beliefs and practices related to nature, work, and governance.

My current research focuses on the politics of production -- food production, knowledge production, and production of identity -- in the negotiation of environmental conflict. Since 2008, I have conducted research with oyster harvesters in Apalachicola Bay, Florida. This project documents oystermen's experiences with water conflict, coastal development, new food safety regulations, and the BP oil disaster. Maintaining access to resources requires political work. I trace oystermen's interactions with the state and their engagement in advocacy coalitions that attempt to link economic and environmental sustainability. How are oystermen represented in these encounters? How do oystermen's strategies both reflect and shape emerging discourses of sustainability and "the local" (local stakeholders, local ecological knowledge, local foodways, and local identity)? What are the outcomes of this political work for oystermen and for Apalachicola Bay? More broadly, what can mapping these emerging political networks and practices teach us about about relations between core/periphery, state/subjects, and production/protection? This project has been funded through the Community Forestry and Environmental Research Partnerships program and the UF Water Institute.

I have also done fieldwork in Oregon, Peru, Mexico, and the Kavango-Zambezi region of southern Africa. Past projects have explored community-based natural resource management, parks and protected areas, ecotourism, and the impacts of socionatural disaster on rural livelihoods. I am originally from Oregon, where I worked in community-based watershed restoration and natural areas management.

BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster

Coastal communities on the Gulf of Mexico, including Apalachicola, are facing disaster due to the ongoing oil spill caused by the collapse of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the Louisiana coast. Oystermen and other seafood workers in Apalachicola fear that their livelihoods, their communities, and the bay they love may never be the same. While we are fortunate that oil has not yet reached our beaches and marshes, Franklin County is already being impacted by loss of access to fishing grounds, loss of market share for Gulf seafood, and vacation cancellations. Declines in the seafood and tourism industries disproportionately affect low-income and marginalized workers. If you study disaster or the Gulf Coast, please consider joining our network of concerned anthropologists.

Teaching

Fall 2010: Instructor, ANT 2410: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Summer B 2010: Teaching Assistant, ANT 2301: Human Sexuality and Culture

Fall 2008: Teaching Assistant, ANT 2410: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Spring 2008: Co-Instructor, ENV 4932: Water, Environment, and Society

During Summer B 2010, I am available to meet with students during office hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 11 am - noon. My office is in room 115 on the main level of Phelps Lab, located across Museum Road from the Welcome Center at Reitz Union. If students wish to email me to schedule an appointment or discuss class-related issues, please use my gmail rather than my ufl address. I will typically respond within one business day. Sorry, I cannot discuss grades via email. I do enjoy talking with students, and I hope that you will stop by and see me during office hours.