About
My research interests lie at the intersection of economic sociology, environmental sociology, political economy, and the sociologies of risk and morality. My dissertation, Private Property Under the Climate Crisis, examines how climate disasters transform the liberal regime of private property in the US as they destroy large swaths of property. I compare two Los Angeles communities facing concurrent disasters: an affluent single-family homeowner community facing a landslide, and an affordable lease-based mobile home community destroyed by wildfire. Using ethnographic, interview, and archival data, I compare how these residents of differing ownership statuses conceptualize and mobilize their property rights post-disaster. I demonstrate how the dominant regime of private property can be both entrenched and destabilized by climate disasters, showing how climate change may reshape this core institution of American society.
My work has been supported by the American Sociological Association (Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Doctoral Fellowship). My writing has received awards from the ASA's Environmental Sociology Section and the University of Michigan's Sociology Department. My research was featured in an article by the Rackham Graduate School.
