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 the climate disasters transform the liberal regime of private property in the US as they routinely 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 legal and regulatory data, I compare how these residents of differing ownership statuses articulate and mobilize their property rights after disaster. I demonstrate how the dominant regime of private property can be both entrenched and destabilized by disasters, showing how climate change reshapes this core social institution.
Prior to joining the department, I received my B.A. from the University of Toronto, with majors in Sociology and Economics and a minor in Statistics. My work is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
My writing has received awards from ASA's Environmental Sociology Section (Honorable Mention, Graduate Student Paper Award) and UM's Department of Sociology (Katherine Luke Graduate Student Paper Award). My research was featured in an article by the Rackham Graduate School.
