About

Click here to view my CV.

img_2594-e1527185547778.jpgI am an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and CV Starr Fellow in International Studies at Middlebury College. My background is in human geography, cultural anthropology, and environmental science. In my research and teaching, I explore questions of power, knowledge, environmental justice, and social change, combining scholarship in political ecology, global environmental politics, science and technology studies, organization studies, social movements, and critical pedagogy.

I apply an ethnographic approach to the study of environmental politics, focusing on the everyday experiences of the people who together constitute global environmental governance. My longest-running research project has been studying the influence of nature-based solutions like “ecosystem services” in global biodiversity conservation (now forthcoming as a book with MIT Press). I have two other ongoing research projects investigating (a) clashing “theories of change” in the climate movement and (b) how educators are grappling with the radical implications of contemporary ecological crises through their teaching. My research has been supported by a number of awards including grants from SSHRC, the National Science Foundation, UC Berkeley, and Middlebury College. I have written for the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Antipode, Environment & Planning E: Nature & Space, Human Geography, Conservation and Society, Global Environmental Change, Journal of Peasant Studies, and Research in Economic Anthropology.

Google Scholar / LinkedIn / ResearchGate

I completed my PhD at UC Berkeley in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management (ESPM) before starting my post at Middlebury. I am from Vancouver and attended UBC as an undergraduate, where I studied Anthropology and Environmental Science, before completing an MA in Geography at the University of Toronto. Prior to grad school, I spent some time living in the central Philippines where I led marine research and monitoring initiatives for an organization supporting community-based marine protected areas. As a doctoral student in the Bay Area, when I wasn’t hunched over my computer, I could often be found up in the Berkeley hills making the most of California before they made me graduate. I eventually moved to Vermont, where I have looked forward to more running, cycling, hiking, camping, and many other -ings related to being outdoors while waiting for Vermont to thaw each year.

IMG_5051