I'm a political ecologist at Temple University who conducts justice-oriented research on such varied flows as water, people, capital, and rights.

I conduct mixed-methods research that ranges from historical and ethnographic examination of human vulnerability, to quantitative analysis of water-sharing treaties, to policy-based assessment of international climate finance. Such projects reflect my abiding interest in understanding flows. Flows of water and capital, for instance, vary spatially and temporally, often with predictable but inequitable outcomes. My research traces and interrogates flows to understand, for example, how water defies gravity to “flow uphill to money and power” and why disenfranchised groups disproportionately find themselves downstream of toxic industrial effluents. It takes a political ecology approach to understanding inequality and injustice by situating environmental crises within the broader context of political economy and differential social power. I employ qualitative and quantitative methods to interrogate what processes produce and sustain flows to determine how material and non-material flows may be intercepted and directed toward more just ends.

 

Research

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I am a human-environment geographer whose research on transboundary river governance and climate adaptation finance engages theory and methods from political ecology, environmental history, and critical geopolitics.

Teaching

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I am committed to helping students parse complex environmental knowledges. To this end, my goal in the classroom is to create an atmosphere of active student engagement that focuses on critical inquiry, innovative thinking, and cooperative learning.

Outreach

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External service is another of my core commitments and takes the form of public outreach, peer review, and other volunteer work. I also aim to bring current scholarship into the classroom through articles oriented toward grade-school students and teachers.