soil. water. people.
Research Philosophy & Practice
My research draws on historical political ecology, critical agrarian and food studies, and the political economy of climate change to examine intertwined questions of environmental, social, and economic sustainability in the United States. I am motivated by the question of how power, politics, and knowledge (re)produce uneven socio-material relations through resource management policies and practices. More broadly, I am interested in understanding how place-based environmental challenges articulate with global forces and processes. I explore these topics by applying rigorous qualitative and quantitative methods, from geospatial analysis to ethnography, along with a deep understanding of biophysical systems.
At the core of my research is the recognition that ecological systems are influenced by both material and discursive practices and that any consideration of environmental sustainability must also attend to culture and history. I am committed to community-engaged work, ensuring that my research is grounded in locally specific perspectives.
Drained: Power and Pollution in the Iowa Prairie
My dissertation project develops an ethnographic case study of the politics of nutrient management and agro-industrial transformation in Iowa. I investigate the persistent problem of agricultural nitrate pollution in drinking water, working closely with Iowa-based chemists, agricultural stakeholders, and community organizations.
Drawing on fourteen months of fieldwork, I integrate a “thick” understanding of landscape ecology, hydrology, and agronomy with historical geographic dimensions of social dynamics to contribute a grounded, interdisciplinary account of ongoing challenges in the state.
Food systems and a just sustainability transition
This work looked at socio-environmental opportunities for organic material management in California’s sustainability transition. Contemporary resource management is doubly burdened by high rates of organic material disposal in landfills, generating potent greenhouse gases (GHG), and globally degraded soils, which threaten future food security. Expansion of composting can provide a resilient alternative, by avoiding landfill GHG emissions, returning valuable nutrients to the soil to ensure continued agricultural production, and sequestering carbon while supporting local communities. Working with a team of scholars, practitioners, and community organizations, I investigate the potential of leveraging climate policy to achieve myriad social and environmental goals.
Rural Energy Geographies
In my newest line of work, I am building on my deep understanding of rural spaces and the multi-scalar dynamics of sustainability and resource policy to explore emergent rural energy assemblages. My doctoral research has revealed escalating social tensions around local and regional renewable energy projects that articulate with historical patterns of rural resource appropriation and marginalization for the benefit of urban residents and multinational corporations. As climate change remakes agrarian spaces throughout the country, I contribute to a place-based historical geography of the complex assemblage of agricultural and renewable energy production.