I am an environmental anthropologist, Dean’s Assistant Professor of Environment & Society and Anthropology at Brown University, and a former sustainable energy policy practitioner.
My first research project explores the intersectional dimensions of solar infrastructure in New York City, illuminating the sensorial and emotional power of renewable energy in a gentrifying skyline built on racial capitalism and threatened by climate collapse. I am currently conducting long-term research on young, Black land stewards' complex efforts to navigate settler colonialism and redress white supremacy through land-based labor in the United States. My research has been supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.
My scholarly and teaching interests include the anthropology of energy, the co-production of race and nature, multispecies ethnography, climate justice and environmental justice, science and technology studies, affect theory, and the epistemological politics of climate mitigation efforts. I hold a B.A. in Development Studies from Brown University and a Ph.D in environmental anthropology from Yale University. My research and scholarly objectives are informed by my experience as a sustainable energy practitioner and advocate in New York for eight years prior to beginning my Ph.D.