Nature and power; Agrarian studies; Environmental justice; and Critical theory
I am a human geographer whose work examines the politics of nature, particularly issues surrounding food, agriculture, and land conservation. My research in the US South analyzes the ways that the racial and class dynamics of the plantation past are reproduced in the present, and argues that any meaningful abolition of this legacy will require fundamentally reshaping property relations.
I am also developing a collaborative research project that examines the politics of soil surveys in the US and beyond, asking: What assumptions inform them, and how are these technologies used to shape our social and ecological landscapes? Ultimately, this project aims to democratize knowledge about soils and develop soil surveys that are useful for the needs of food sovereignty and environmental justice movements.
Portions of this work have been funded by, among others, the National Science Foundation, the American Association of Geographers, and the Harvard Center for the Study of Capitalism. I have published this research in the journals Antipode, Geoforum, Geography Compass, and Progress in Human Geography.
Ph.D., Geography and Integrative Conservation
University of Georgia (2016)