My research focuses on the political, environmental, and technological dimensions of disasters. My current book project, (under contract with Duke University Press), entitled Disaster Nationalism: Tsunami and Civil War in Sri Lanka, examines the intersections of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the decades-long civil war which ended in 2009 in Sri Lanka. I am currently developing a new project on climate change and sea surface warming - a slow-moving disaster - in the Indian Ocean. I am also affiliate faculty in Race and Ethnic Studies and Environmental Studies.

I received my B.A. in Anthropology (with a minor in Gender and Women's Studies) from Pomona College.  I received my M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology (with a designated emphasis in Social Theory and Comparative History) from the University of California, Davis.

Courses Taught:

SOAN 128 Introduction to Anthropology

SOAN 292 Anthropological Theory

SOAN 247 Disasters

SOAN 262 Global Interdependence

SOAN 293 Environmental Anthropology

ENVS 281 Environmental Justice