I am a cultural and medical anthropologist. My research focuses on the ways social relationships impact embodied experience, intersections between public policy and well-being, and the co-production of scientific knowledge and subjective experiences, including narrative creation. My first book project (Fragile Kinships: Child Welfare and Well-Being in Japan, forthcoming from Cornell University Press in 2024) explored how social inclusion and exclusion shape holistic well-being. I conducted longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork with people connected to the Japanese child welfare system, examining the stakes of family disconnection in a country where the family is considered the basic social unit. A new project, Knowing Air, takes the creation of and engagement with atmospheric data as a social field to study ethnographically. Knowing Air works to understand how shifting environmental factors—including increased wildfire activity and the COVID-19 pandemic—impact the ways people engage with air quality data (quantitative air quality indices and qualitative, sensory, story-based information) including measures of “invisible” pollutants such as ozone. Focused on the Front Range of Colorado, and specifically Boulder County, this project explores how principles of environmental justice might be served by framing air quality as a problem of equity outside of industrial pollution corridors. I am privileged to collaborate with the Louisville Historical Museum on their Marshall Fire Story Project to support the collection and archiving of community experiences surrounding the devastating December 30, 2021 fire in Boulder County. I am also the Principal Investigator, with co-PI Arielle Milkman and CIRES/NOAA collaborators Owen Cooper and Audrey Gaudel, on a collaborative project funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/ National Weather Service project in Applied Meteorological Research, “Smoke Exposure and Underserved Wildland Fire Communities.”
keywords
Kinship, medical anthropology and mental health, social determinants of health and well-being, semiotics, narrative, engaged anthropology, anthropology of Japan, science and technology studies, environmental justice
ANTH 1110 - Anthropology of Japan: Culture, Diversity, and Identity
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2023 / Spring 2024
Focusing on diverse facets of lived experience, this course introduces students to the cultural anthropology of contemporary Japan. Students will gain an understanding of the anthropological fieldwork process, theoretical issues within cultural anthropology, and key debates in Japanese studies about Japanese identity and internal diversity.
ANTH 1155 - Exploring Global Cultural Diversity
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2022
Examines the geography, kinship, politics and religious values of various cultures globally in historical and contemporary context through an anthropological perspective. Check with department for semester offerings. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours.
ANTH 2100 - Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2018 / Spring 2020 / Spring 2021
Covers current theories in cultural anthropology and discusses the nature of field work. Explores major schools of thought and ethnographic fieldwork in a range of cultures studied by anthropologists. Required for Anthropology majors.
ANTH 4020 - Explorations in Anthropology
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2019
Special topics in cultural and physical anthropology, as well as archaeology. Check with the department for semester offerings. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours. Same as ANTH 5020.
ANTH 4605 - Anthropology of Neuroscience
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019 / Spring 2023
Examines the connections between the production and social uptake of neuroscientific knowledge, and explores how transformations in neuroscience shape understandings of human nature. Focusing on anthropological, philosophical, and popular literature, this course addresses the following themes through a cultural and anthropological lens: subjectivity and neuroimaging, "disability" and "neurodiversity," child development, gender, "risk" and neoliberal governance, and the production of scientific expertise. Same as ANTH 5605.
ANTH 4615 - Kinship: Being and Belonging
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2021 / Fall 2024
Explores interpersonal relationships as foundational objects of analysis. This course takes a comparative approach to examine both large-scale social movements and intimate practices, examining how the ideologies and practices of relatedness intersect with and are shaped by gender and sexuality, national identity and state building, race and ethnicity, embodiment, ways of understanding signs in the world (semiotics), the law, and economic relationships. Previously offered as a special topics course. Recommended prerequisite: ANTH 2100.
ANTH 4700 - Practicing Anthropology
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Spring 2020 / Spring 2022 / Spring 2024
Learn ethnographic methods in the classroom and implement these skills in placements with community organizations, where students pursue an applied research project. This course teaches students how to use anthropological theory and methods to investigate social problems, and to consider how ethnographic research techniques can be applied to positively impact society. Same as ANTH 5700.
ANTH 5020 - Explorations in Anthropology
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2019
Special topics in cultural and physical anthropology, as well as archaeology. Check with the department for semester offerings. May be repeated up to 9 total credit hours. Same as ANTH 4020.
ANTH 5605 - Anthropology of Neuroscience
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2019 / Spring 2023
Examines the connections between the production and social uptake of neuroscientific knowledge, and explores how transformations in neuroscience shape understandings of human nature. Focusing on anthropological, philosophical, and popular literature, this course addresses the following themes through a cultural and anthropological lens: subjectivity and neuroimaging, "disability" and "neurodiversity," child development, gender, "risk" and neoliberal governance, and the production of scientific expertise. Same as ANTH 4605.
ANTH 5700 - Practicing Anthropology
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Spring 2020 / Spring 2022 / Spring 2024
Learn ethnographic methods in the classroom and implement these skills in placements with community organizations, where students pursue an applied research project. This course teaches students how to use anthropological theory and methods to investigate social problems, and to consider how ethnographic research techniques can be applied to positively impact society. Same as ANTH 4700.
ANTH 7015 - Kinship: Being and Belonging
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2020
Explores interpersonal relationships as foundational objects of analysis. This course takes a comparative approach to examine both large-scale social movements and intimate practices, examining how the ideologies and practices of relatedness intersect with and are shaped by gender and sexuality, national identity and state building, race and ethnicity, embodiment, ways of understanding signs in the world (semiotics), the law, and economic relationships. Previously offered as a special topics course.
ANTH 7200 - Bridging Seminar
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2022
Addresses important topics with current theoretical perspectives from at least two anthropological subdisciplines. This provides an interdisciplinary approach across the sub-disciplines of Anthropology: Archaeology, Biological, and Cultural enabling students to better understand and appreciate a holistic approach to anthropological inquiry. Graduate students from other departments may be allowed to take the course if room permits and they have an appropriate background by instructor's permission.
