Humans dwell in every earthly niche, and although our heritage may tie us back to some bucolic space in time, over half of us live in urban environments. The socio-cultural, material, and technological adaptations to urban environments are mutually constitutive and form the backdrop of my work. I am an urban anthropologist and a full-time lecturer at UNT. My theoretical approaches and teaching interests include space and place, architecture and urban planning, D/development, organizational culture, material culture, gender and tourism. I combine anthropological investigation and pedagogy by designing projects for clients which also serve to train our students in applied research, and I approach both research and teaching with ethnographic flexibility to best understand the intimate spaces of daily life and the institutions and infrastructures that bind them together. My doctoral research investigated the contestation of cultural heritage surrounding architectural conservation and new commercial construction in the rugged Himalayan tourist destination of Leh, Ladakh - India. Back home, my recent projects in urban ecology examine residential perceptions of the water-energy nexus, and are informed by a four-field approach to the human experience.
Education
2014 PhD Anthropology, Syracuse University
2007 MA Anthropology, Syracuse University
2001 BA Anthropology, University of North Texas
Selected Consulting Projects
WEAT - Water Environment Association of Texas
NTMWD - North Texas Municipal Water District
Selected Presentations
2016 Paper Presentation. "Volunteerism or Applied Anthropology? Development Discourses in Leh, Ladakh." SfAA Annual Meetings, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
2015 Paper Presentation. "Estrangement from Familiar Ground: Limestone and Livelihoods in Lueders, W. Texas" AAA Annual Meetings, Denver, CO.
2015 Invited Lecture: "Spaces of Rest: An Anthropological Perspective" Crow Collection of Asian Art Wellness Series, Dallas, Tx.
2015 Paper Presentation. "Making Distinctions: Anthropological Mediation and Volunteer Tourism" AES Annual Meetings, San Diego, CA
2009 Paper Presentation. "A Concrete Understanding: Architectural Heritage in Guest House Construction." AAA Annual Meetings, Philadelphia, PA
Selected Courses Taught
On-campus: Anthropology of Non-Governmental Organizations (cross-listed), Ethnographic and Qualitative Research Methods (graduate-level), Introduction to Anthropology, Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective, Peoples and Cultures of South Asia, Anthropology of Tourism (cross-listed), Urban Anthropology; Blackboard: American Culture and Society, Ethnographic and Qualitative Research Methods for Non-majors, Graduate Seminar in Sociocultural Anthropology, Introduction to Anthropology, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (Course Designer)
