Projects

1. How can working landscapes build nimble and equitable adaptive capacity?

I investigate how agricultural systems can adapt to climate change while supporting ecosystem functioning, biodiversity conservation, and justice and equity outcomes for rural communities. My research bridges social-ecological systems theory with on-the-ground practice to understand how sustainable transitions actually happen in working landscapes like farms. Example of published work here. Additionally, I was an editor for a special issue on farming systems and adaptive capacity in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, which can be found here.

2. How do farmers and farm advisors experience and adapt to climate change?

I examine how rural agricultural communities in the US respond and adapt to the impacts of climate change - from water scarcity and unpredictable weather to changing demographics, policies, markets, and migrations. For my dissertation, I investigated how small and mid-scale farmers in northern California navigate climate risks and adapt, even as many remain skeptical of climate change science. Articles that draw on this richly textured data, including over 140 in-depth interviews, include publications in the journals Global Environmental Change and Climatic Change. My current book project, "Farmers and the Politics of Climate Change" (under contract with Yale University Press) builds on this research. At the University of Montana, in collaboration with the Montana Climate Office and with USDA NIFA funding, I am also studying climate disaster relief programs and their impacts on adaptation strategies and land tenure. 

3. How does local government control shape equity outcomes as rural places change?

I explore how local institutions and governance structures influence equity outcomes during periods of rural transformation. The rapidly changing policy decentralization of cannabis cultivation is converging with governance solutions to address climate change imperatives like desertification, providing an ideal case to examine local-level regulatory decision-making. Findings from this research show how law enforcement-led interventions have disproportionately impacted farmers of color in California (in California Agriculture); how environmental discourses are employed in illicit crop interventions globally through the US-led War on Drugs (in Political Geography); how relational dynamics of compliance create exclusions (in the Journal of Rural Studies); and how geographic and social dynamics structure marginalization (in the Journal of Environmental Management). Currently, I am working with Hmong farmers to understand how climate change is facilitating new expressions of structural racism in local water and land use policy. Climate change and associated policy changes, such as recent groundwater regulation in California, are creating new opportunities to enroll scientific experts and expertise in racializing projects, while also spurring resistance efforts and novel political formations. In this project, I'm working with community-based researchers and videographers. Check out a short life history video clip here: