Expertise
I specialize in environmental anthropology, with an emphasis on sustainable livelihoods and household food security. For a decade, I conducted research in Vietnam, where I studied differential livelihood vulnerability created by national economic reform in a small coastal village in the Mekong Delta. Using qualitative and quantitative field methods, I investigated the linkages between governmental policies encouraging shrimp aquaculture and access to the resources needed by members of the local community to construct viable and sustainable livelihoods. While at the University of Georgia, I worked with a team to understand private landowners’ decision making about conservation in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. I also assisted a year-long research project concerned with food security, social capital, and mountain microclimates on the border of Uganda and Kenya.
In collaboration with a colleague in the Environmental Studies discipline here at Eckerd College, I am continuing my work on food security and socio-ecological resilience by studying shore fishing spaces around Tampa Bay and the communities of fishers who use these spaces. We are interested in to what extent these bridges, piers, sea walls, etc. can be considered “commons,” the social negotiations that define “commoners,” and what aspects of the physical and biological ecosystem coincide with successful “commoning” behaviors. Sited locally, we have an exciting opportunity to conduct our research year round, training student research interns and drawing on the expertise of our community members.