About
My research examines the politics of the natural and built environment, with a focus on community activism and participatory processes of urban governance. My on-going fieldwork in South Africa explores the politics of water, sanitation, and electricity infrastructures in informal settlements in the Khayelitsha area of Cape Town. This research examines how communities respond to the possibilities for, and failures of, infrastructure development through community mobilizations and everyday actions, providing ways to see the failures of development as central to new understandings of post-Apartheid citizenship. I have been conducting research in South Africa since 2010 and have held local affiliations with the Anthropology Department at the University of Cape Town and the African Centre for Citizenship and Democracy at the University of the Western Cape. A brief interview about one piece of my dissertation, related to waste, can be accessed here (Link) and a blog entry about another section of my work, regarding water, can be read here (Link).
In Louisville, I am currently conducting research on community participation processes with Lauren Heberle (Sociology/CEPM), David Johnson (Public Health), Allison Smith (Metro Louisville), and Daniel DeCaro (Urban and Public Affairs/Psychology), with community partners Metro Louisville and the West Louisville Community Council. The project, entitled “Learning how the Community Leads: Evaluating and Informing City-Based Participatory Engagement in West Louisville,” uses qualitative and quantitative methodologies to examine the expectations, experiences and hopes of West Louisville residents as they engage with four Metro-based participatory projects. We engage directly with the racial and socio-economic foundations of structural inequality within the city, asking how histories of engagement influence ongoing participation and action. We seek to create place-based, responsive tools to improve community engagement and support local organizations. This project has been funded by the Cooperative Consortium for Transdisciplinary Social Justice Research (http://louisville.edu/socialjustice), within which I am currently a Faculty Fellow.
I completed my Ph.D. at the University of Arizona, with a focus on socio-cultural and applied anthropology, working with Thomas Park, James Greenberg, Susan Shaw, and Jennifer Roth-Gordon. My dissertation research was supported by a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, an Emil Haury Fellowship, and a Confluence Graduate Fellowship, with additional support from the University of Arizona’s School of Anthropology, Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, and Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute.
I teach courses in environmental anthropology and political ecology, urban anthropology, globalization and inequality, applied anthropology, and the anthropology of infrastructure, as well as regional courses focusing on sub-Saharan Africa. I utilize learner-centered pedagogies and active learning practices in all of my teaching.
I am interested to work with graduate students focusing on theoretical or applied/engaged questions related to environmental, urban, infrastructural, and political/social movement anthropologies.