Positions
Coastal Carolina University
2018-present, Assistant Professor, HTC Honors College and Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
Ohio Wesleyan University
2016-2018, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Geology & Geography
Education
Vanderbilt University
Ph.D., Community Research and Action, August 2016
Graduate Certificate, Women's and Gender Studies
Dissertation: Restoring the Human in the Search for Nature: Homelessness, Ecology, and the Struggle for Change
M.S., Community Research and Action, 2011
Thesis: Hydrologic Discourses: The Politics and Practices of Hidden Water in Nashville, TN
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
M.P.S., Environmental and Forest Biology, 2005
Concentrations: Natural History and Environmental Interpretation, Aquatic Ecology
Rutgers University
B.S., Biology
Concentration: Ecology
Competitive Grants & Awards
FELLOWSHIPS & GRANTS
2020-2021 Broadening Participation in Engineering, National Science Foundation Established Program to Stimulate
Competitive Research. Co-Principal Investigator $10,000 (PI: Monica Gray)
2019-2020 Course Development Grant, Coastal Office of Online Learning ($3,000)
2019-2020 Planting Justice, Building Community: Conway Community Garden Project, CCU Interdisciplinary Experiential
Learning Grant (with Jaime McCauley, Darcy Coughlan, & Dominique Cagalanan) ($3,000)
Jan-May 2019 Faculty Mentee, CCU Faculty Peer Mentoring Program for Education Abroad Development ($3,818)
January 2019 Sponsored Workshop Fellow, National Science Foundation Workshop on Community Geography ($450)
July-Aug 2017 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Scholar in Space, Place, and the Humanities ($2,700)
2015 – 2016 AAUW American Dissertation Fellowship ($20,000)
2015 – 2016 Graduate Writing Fellow, Vanderbilt University Writing Studio ($25,000) (declined)
2015 – 2016 Peabody Honors Scholarship ($5,000)
2009 – 2014 Vanderbilt University Graduate Fellowship ($50,000)
2009 – 2014 Peabody College Dean’s Fellowship ($5,000)
AWARDS & HONORS
2015 Invited member of the Global Feminisms Collaborative, Vanderbilt University
2015 Participant in the “Critical Physical Geography” AAG Pre-conference Workshop, Chicago, IL
2012 Outstanding Instructor in Human and Organizational Development Award, Vanderbilt University
2012 Competitively selected to attend the Futures of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth College (funding
provided by Vanderbilt University American Studies Department)
2010 Competitively selected for an NSF-funded workshop on “Graph Theory and Biological Networks” at the
National Institute for Math and Biological Synthesis in Knoxville, TN
2008 Citizen’s Committee for NYC Better Neighborhood Grant, Awarded for “Bushwick Youth-Led Community
Food Assessment”
Publications
PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES
2021 "Engaging the complexities of community: Conflict and difference in community-engaged
research." GeoJournal
2017 “Stigmatized places as therapeutic landscapes: The beneficial dimensions of riverbottom homeless
encampments.” Medicine Anthropology Theory 4(1): 123-150.
2013 "Crowdsourcing Urban Surveillance: The Development of Homeland Security Markets for Environmental
Sensor Networks," Geoforum 49: 279-288 (with Torin Monahan).
2010 "Sensing Environmental Danger in the City," International Review of Information Ethics 12: 21-27
(with Torin Monahan).
Presentations
INVITED TALKS
“Restoring the Human in the Search for Nature: Homelessness, Ecology, and the Struggle for Change.” Coastal Carolina University, University College Honors Program, February 2018.
“Restoring the Human in the Search for Nature: Homelessness, Ecology, and the Struggle for Change.” University of Kentucky, Department of Geography, January 2018.
“Restoring the Human in the Search for Nature: Homelessness, Ecology, and the Struggle for Change.” Bates College, Department of Environmental Studies, January 2017.
“Restoring the Human in the Search for Nature: Homelessness, Ecology, and the Struggle for Change.” Wofford College, Department of Sociology & Anthropology, December 2016.
“The Work of Hygiene and Pollution in Urban River Restoration.” Michigan State University, Department of Community Sustainability, February 2016.
“Restoring the Floodplain, Constructing the Natural: Homelessness, Ecology, and the Struggle for Change.” Michigan State University, Department of Community Sustainability, March 2015.
“Ethnographic Methods for Community Engaged Justice Research.” Vanderbilt University Critical Methodology Working Group, March 2015.
CONFERENCE PANELS ORGANIZED OR CHAIRED
"Critical Methods for Community-Engaged Socio-Environmental Research." Panel organized and chaired at American Association of Geographers meeting, Washington, DC, April 2019 (with Nathan Rowley).
“Debt as Social Obligation.” Panel organized at American Studies Association, Washington, DC, November 2013 (with Brian Murphy and Megan Black).
“Urban Plans, Technologies, and Narratives.” Chair. American Anthropological Association meeting, Montreal, November 2011.
SELECTED CONFERENCE PAPERS
"Community-Engaged Research Across Conflict and Difference." American Association of Geographers meeting in Denver, CO, April 2020. (cancelled due to Covid-19)
"The Complexities of Community: Engendering Change Through Ethnographic Research Across Difference." American Association of Geographers meeting in Boston, MA, April 2017.
“Scholar-Activism: Navigating Theory and Methodology in Critically Engaged and Situated Work” panel participant at 23rd Annual Conference on Critical Geography in Lexington, KY, October 2016.
“Exploring the Politics of Sensing Through Participatory Methods.” American Association of Geographers meeting in San Francisco, CA, March 2016.
“The Work of Hygiene and Pollution in the Restoration of Riverbottom Homeless Encampments.” American Association of Geographers meeting in Chicago, IL, April 2015.
“The Politics of Security and Invasion in Urban Stream Restoration.” Dimensions of Political Ecology meeting in Lexington, KY, February 2015.
“I’m the Cleanest Hobo I Know.” Poster at UNC Water and Health Conference, Chapel Hill, NC, Oct 2014.
“Preservation or Progress: Development, Power, and the Future of Place in Bells Bend, TN.” American Studies Association meeting in Washington, DC, Nov. 2013.
“Disaster for Whom?: The Politics of Security and Invasion in Urban Stream Restoration.” Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) meeting in San Diego, CA, October 2013.
“Buried Streams and Hidden Narratives: A Sociomaterial Approach to Understanding Urban Water.” Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, October 2012.
“Intersecting Human and Physical Geographies in the Creation of Place.” American Association of Geographers meeting in Seattle, WA, April 2011.
INVITED PUBLIC TALKS
“The Political Economy of Current Initiatives in Housing Reform.” Public Forum on Ventura County’s Housing Crisis, Ventura, CA, June 2014.
“Water Footprints, Society, and Justice.” Gardening Partners of Dickson County, Dickson, TN, June 2012.
“Youth Documenting Fast Food, Slow Food, and No Good Food in the Community.” Baum Forum: Schools, Food, and Community at Columbia University in New York, April 2008.
Professional Service to Discipline
Steering Committee Member, Community Geographies Collaborative, December 2019-preent
Reviewer: ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies
Geographical Review
GeoJournal
University Service
2020-present Member, Women's and Gender Studies Advisory Board, Coastal Carolina University
2020-present Member, Graduate Council, Coastal Carolina University
2019-present Member, University Senate Faculty Development Committee, Coastal Carolina University
2019-present Member, Sustainability Program Advisory Group, Coastal Carolina University
2019 Member, Teacher-Scholar Showcase Organizing Committee, Coastal Carolina University
2019 Mentor, CINO Elevate student mentoring program, Coastal Carolina University
2018-present Member, LGBTQIA+ Faculty Caucus, Coastal Carolina University
2011 Mentor, Leadership Alliance minority student summer research program, Vanderbilt University
2011-2012 Member, Dean’s Graduate Programming Committee, Vanderbilt University
2010-2016 Member, Minority Student Committee, Dept. of Human and Organizational Development
2010-2013 Co-facilitated three department-wide discussions on the topic of interdisciplinarity
Professional Associations
American Studies Association
Association of American Geographers
(Sections: Cultural and Political Ecology; Ethics, Justice, & Human Rights; Health & Medical Geography)
Ecological Society of America
Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S)