the Wond'ry

I am an interdisciplinary cultural anthropologist interested in the ways that industrial agriculture alters the world we live in. My doctoral research focused on the rise of industrial coffee production in post-Đổi Mới Vietnam. This research produced an ethnography of the Vietnamese coffee industry and the ways in which it illuminates post-renovation histories of environment and livelihood, state regulatory practices, global aspirations, consumption culture, and anxiety around climate change in Southeast Asia. I am in the process of completing a full length book manuscript based on this research. My next project emerges from my examination of industrial agriculture and coffee in Vietnam. Interest in fertilizer, multispecies relationships, climate change, and citizen/community science inform this new research—a multispecies ethnography of large-scale agriculture in the Mekong Delta. Broadly speaking, my interests are environmental anthropology, critical food and agriculture studies, and political and legal anthropology with a regional focus in Southeast Asia.

As an associate professor in the California State University (CSU) system, I maintain a rigorous teaching schedule and make a concerted effort to implement innovative course design to the extent possible, pushing experiential learning through unique study abroad opportunities and service-learning courses.

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