Profile

I am trained as a scholar of international economic development and human geography. In my research I use food and agricultural production as a lens to examine power relations and resistance as they relate to capitalist-driven economic development. I conduct research in both peripheral and core economic areas.

Decolonial Autonomies

In the wake of violence and food riots that spanned the globe in 2008, there is increased attention to the issue of imbalances in the allocation and distribution of food and agricultural products and resources. In the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico, indigenous subsistence farmers in self-declared autonomous communities feel such imbalances acutely and must negotiate the tension between providing food for their families and producing cash-crops for income on a daily basis. The aim of this research, which was conducted as part of fieldwork for my dissertation, is to examine the nuances of how everyday actions related to both agricultural and political practices play out due to and in spite of this tension. At first glance Chiapaneco highland communities may look very similar, yet in self-declared autonomous, fair trade coffee-producing communities in the official municipality of Chenalhó, everyday practices and politics look very different.

This research was funded by a range of grants and is currently being written-up.

Select photos (link)

Report for the Global Studies Institute: "Naylor on Farmers in Mexico" (link)
Report for the Center for the Study of Women and Society: "Resistance and the Everyday" (2012, CSWS Newsletter p. 9) (link)

Hired Gardens

In 2009, the New York Times ran an article (link) profiling businesses that could be hired to install, maintain and harvest fresh vegetables from personal, residential, private property and declared the consumers of such businesses “lazy locavores.” This article was the basis for the hired gardens research project, funded by the Department of Geography at the University of Oregon, I conducted interviews and observation with ‘hired garden’ businesses on the west coast of the United States and their clients, and completed textual analysis of related websites, new stories and other documents. The research resulted in an academic article: “Hired Gardens and the Question of Transgression: Lawns, Food Gardens and the Business of ‘alternative’ Food Practice.” Cultural Geographies 19, no. 4 (October 1, 2012): 483–504. This article used the empirical work to examine the practice of lawn removal, participation in alternative food movements, and the procuring of hired garden services as a transgressive practice.