Profile

I am a political and cultural geographer interested in democracy, place identity and citizenship practices in the context of neoliberal globalization and contemporary transnational migration patterns. Towards this end I have conducted research on gender and shifting political cultures in a Purhépechan community in Michoacán, Mexico and explored the politics of race, place, and belonging in Woodburn, Oregon—the state’s largest city with a majority Latino/a population. Currently I am engaged in National Science Foundation-funded research on the labor market linkages between upper-income (domestic) migrants and low-wage Latino/a immigrants in U.S. rural areas experiencing amenity-driven gentrification. My co-investigator on this project is Dr. Peter Nelson of Middlebury College. Driven by globalization across different scales, we explore the extent to which rural gentrification transforms labor markets, place identity, as well as practices of citizenship as it is constructed along axes of race, class, and legality / illegality. My research engages and contributes to debates on globalization, critical development, citizenship and transnationalism, feminist thought, critical race theory, and qualitative methodologies.

I have advised graduate students on a range of topics, including struggles over race and belonging for Latino/a immigrants in the United States; gender, land use and environmental change in Mozambique; ecotourism and development in Mapuche communities of southern Chile, social movements and food security in Mexico, non-governmental organizations and the politics of development in Nicaragua, and the politics of citizenship and U.S. amenity migrants in Costa Rica.