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Teaching and Mentorship
I teach courses on the politics of environment, food, and justice, including, Environment and Society; Sociology of Food; Race, Class, and Environmental Justice; Researching Women, Water, and Justice; Feminist Theory and Environmental Justice; Introduction to Women's Resistance; and, Sociology of Knowledge and Food Systems. I engage community-based learning and applied sociology throughout my teaching. You can learn more about my approach in one course via its recent feature in the Addison Independent.
Outside of the classroom, I enjoy advising students on a variety of academic and professional endeavors. I recently served as a research mentor through the Undergraduate Collaborative Research Fund at Middlebury College. Here, I also organized and co-sponsored campus events with the Women of Color and Distinguished Men of Color student groups, including a DAPL Teach-In and event on the racialization of food. Previously, I was a mentor with the University of Michigan’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and the American Sociological Association's Environmental Sociology Section.
Outreach
In addition to employing community-based learning in my teaching, I advance my applied scholarship through collaborations with my partners in research; together, we aim to develop practical outputs from my analyses that are of more direct use to their communities. Following a working session with the Navajo Nation Breastfeeding Coalition, for example, I summarized my data into a breastfeeding peer counselor support statement distributed to the Navajo Nation Women, Infants, and Children program, Northern Navajo Medical Center, and key decision-makers ahead of the vote on the (now adopted) Resolution on breastfeeding of the NAABIK’ ÍYÁTI’ Standing Committee of the 23rd Navajo Nation Council. I have also shared institutional supports to assist with the Coalition's 2018 and 2019 World Breastfeeding Month celebrations and an indigenous doula training to be held on the Navajo Nation (Diné Bikéyah) later this year. In January 2019, the African American Breastfeeding Network and I co-launched WE-RISE (Water and Environmental Research for Infants' Safe Eating). Our pilot study centers community members' experiences during lead contaminated drinking water crises to enhance the ability for caregivers to provide and infants to access safe food. In addition to supporting local health workers in conducting community surveys and a Community Conversation on lead and drinking water safety, we have produced an annotated bibliography of existing research on infant feeding during water contamination crises to support lead elimination activists, at the particular request of members of the Coalition on Lead Emergency. Additional research and applied outputs are forthcoming. The American Sociological Association's Community Action Research Initiative, Middlebury College's Undergraduate Collaborative Research Fund, and St. Lawrence University support our work.
Service
I recently concluded my tenure as Chair of the Teaching and Outreach Committee of the American Sociological Association's Environmental Sociology Section and as Secretary of the International Lactation Consultant Association's Equity Committee (both positions ran from 2017 to 2019). My efforts in these positions contributed to the archiving of environmental sociology teaching resources for educators, revisions of the Environmental Sociology Section's awards to better reflect our Section's regard for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and new diversity, equity, and inclusion training opportunities and mandates for members of the International Lactation Consultant Association. I have also served as member of the admissions committee for the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, as co-founder and editor with the Michigan Journal of Sustainability, and as an organizer for the Social Movements and Political Contention workshop at the University of Michigan. I am an occasional reviewer for Science as Culture, Social Problems, Sociological Inquiry, Environmental Justice, Agriculture and Human Values, and other scholarly journals along with various grant-funding agencies (including the National Science Foundation).
I teach courses on the politics of environment, food, and justice, including, Environment and Society; Sociology of Food; Race, Class, and Environmental Justice; Researching Women, Water, and Justice; Feminist Theory and Environmental Justice; Introduction to Women's Resistance; and, Sociology of Knowledge and Food Systems. I engage community-based learning and applied sociology throughout my teaching. You can learn more about my approach in one course via its recent feature in the Addison Independent.
Outside of the classroom, I enjoy advising students on a variety of academic and professional endeavors. I recently served as a research mentor through the Undergraduate Collaborative Research Fund at Middlebury College. Here, I also organized and co-sponsored campus events with the Women of Color and Distinguished Men of Color student groups, including a DAPL Teach-In and event on the racialization of food. Previously, I was a mentor with the University of Michigan’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and the American Sociological Association's Environmental Sociology Section.
Outreach
In addition to employing community-based learning in my teaching, I advance my applied scholarship through collaborations with my partners in research; together, we aim to develop practical outputs from my analyses that are of more direct use to their communities. Following a working session with the Navajo Nation Breastfeeding Coalition, for example, I summarized my data into a breastfeeding peer counselor support statement distributed to the Navajo Nation Women, Infants, and Children program, Northern Navajo Medical Center, and key decision-makers ahead of the vote on the (now adopted) Resolution on breastfeeding of the NAABIK’ ÍYÁTI’ Standing Committee of the 23rd Navajo Nation Council. I have also shared institutional supports to assist with the Coalition's 2018 and 2019 World Breastfeeding Month celebrations and an indigenous doula training to be held on the Navajo Nation (Diné Bikéyah) later this year. In January 2019, the African American Breastfeeding Network and I co-launched WE-RISE (Water and Environmental Research for Infants' Safe Eating). Our pilot study centers community members' experiences during lead contaminated drinking water crises to enhance the ability for caregivers to provide and infants to access safe food. In addition to supporting local health workers in conducting community surveys and a Community Conversation on lead and drinking water safety, we have produced an annotated bibliography of existing research on infant feeding during water contamination crises to support lead elimination activists, at the particular request of members of the Coalition on Lead Emergency. Additional research and applied outputs are forthcoming. The American Sociological Association's Community Action Research Initiative, Middlebury College's Undergraduate Collaborative Research Fund, and St. Lawrence University support our work.
Service
I recently concluded my tenure as Chair of the Teaching and Outreach Committee of the American Sociological Association's Environmental Sociology Section and as Secretary of the International Lactation Consultant Association's Equity Committee (both positions ran from 2017 to 2019). My efforts in these positions contributed to the archiving of environmental sociology teaching resources for educators, revisions of the Environmental Sociology Section's awards to better reflect our Section's regard for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and new diversity, equity, and inclusion training opportunities and mandates for members of the International Lactation Consultant Association. I have also served as member of the admissions committee for the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, as co-founder and editor with the Michigan Journal of Sustainability, and as an organizer for the Social Movements and Political Contention workshop at the University of Michigan. I am an occasional reviewer for Science as Culture, Social Problems, Sociological Inquiry, Environmental Justice, Agriculture and Human Values, and other scholarly journals along with various grant-funding agencies (including the National Science Foundation).
