Profile
Assistant Professor, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Arizona State University
Senior Sustainability Scholar, Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University
Chair, Section on Sociology of Development, American Sociological Association
Globalization and Development
Social Justice and Sustainability
Decolonizing Research and Practice
I am a sociologist with more than a dozen peer-reviewed publications on topics related to sustainable and participatory development. Having worked in several world regions, I possess multinational expertise in emerging economies and post-authoritarian states. My scholarship is grounded in critical social theories and methodologies that open spaces for collaborative knowledge building. I am skilled in the use of qualitative, mixed, and participatory research methods.
My scholarship advances development theory and practice in three key ways. First, I work with scholarly and grassroots communities to identify and solve problems. By documenting the intersectional power dynamics informing development in action, my work unpacks structural, relational, and knowledge-based barriers to sustainable and democratic development. Second, I inform action research methodology by designing methods for interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge democratization. Third, my research connects the philosophical discourse on development ethics with critical reflections of practice to improve standards for engagement.
My current scholarship is focused on the political and moral dilemmas of development. Sustainable Participatory Action Research is one of three article projects on development ethics. It systematically interrogates the last decade of empirical studies to unpack methodological and ethical challenges and identify innovative practices that support interdisciplinary collaboration. Ethics for Development Research (forthcoming in Sociology of Development) engages a wide ranging discourse to develop a common set of principles for planning, conducting, and evaluating research across disciplines. The third project elucidates transnational feminisms in development, with a focus on subaltern ethics and transformative feminist practices.
I also am working on two book projects that problematize the politics of sustainable development. The first of these is a volume on energy and democracy that I am co-editing with Majia Nadesan and Martin Pasqualetti. It considers energy imaginaries and examines efforts to democratize energy production and trade. The second is a solo-authored comparative historical study, wherein I engage the cases of post-Soviet Latvia and post-Apartheid South Africa. "Transformative Societies" elucidates the sociopolitical dimension of sustainability by querying the Indigenous value systems informing anti-authoritarian resistance movements, national transitions to democracy, and post-authoritarian sustainable development agendas.
"Transformative Societies" builds from my previous fieldwork in post-Apartheid South Africa and post-Soviet Latvia. In 2010, I worked with South African rooibos tea farmers to co-develop a participatory research, training, and networking initiative. As part of my inquiry, I conducted ethnographic fieldwork with a team of community-based farmer leaders. Our work resulted in a ‘participatory commodity networking’ approach to Fairtrade research and producer support. It also established a multi-paradigmatic foundation for sociopolitical analysis. In 2005, I conducted qualitative mixed methods research in post-Soviet Latvia. Having first worked in the country as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I returned under a Fulbright grant to examine the impacts of European integration on Latvia's organic farming movement. My study found significant growth in the number of farms undergoing organic conversion as well as a strategic shift in movement identity from organic farming to local food.
Assistant Professor, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Arizona State University
Senior Sustainability Scholar, Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University
Chair, Section on Sociology of Development, American Sociological Association
Globalization and Development
Social Justice and Sustainability
Decolonizing Research and Practice
I am a sociologist with more than a dozen peer-reviewed publications on topics related to sustainable and participatory development. Having worked in several world regions, I possess multinational expertise in emerging economies and post-authoritarian states. My scholarship is grounded in critical social theories and methodologies that open spaces for collaborative knowledge building. I am skilled in the use of qualitative, mixed, and participatory research methods.
My scholarship advances development theory and practice in three key ways. First, I work with scholarly and grassroots communities to identify and solve problems. By documenting the intersectional power dynamics informing development in action, my work unpacks structural, relational, and knowledge-based barriers to sustainable and democratic development. Second, I inform action research methodology by designing methods for interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge democratization. Third, my research connects the philosophical discourse on development ethics with critical reflections of practice to improve standards for engagement.
My current scholarship is focused on the political and moral dilemmas of development. Sustainable Participatory Action Research is one of three article projects on development ethics. It systematically interrogates the last decade of empirical studies to unpack methodological and ethical challenges and identify innovative practices that support interdisciplinary collaboration. Ethics for Development Research (forthcoming in Sociology of Development) engages a wide ranging discourse to develop a common set of principles for planning, conducting, and evaluating research across disciplines. The third project elucidates transnational feminisms in development, with a focus on subaltern ethics and transformative feminist practices.
I also am working on two book projects that problematize the politics of sustainable development. The first of these is a volume on energy and democracy that I am co-editing with Majia Nadesan and Martin Pasqualetti. It considers energy imaginaries and examines efforts to democratize energy production and trade. The second is a solo-authored comparative historical study, wherein I engage the cases of post-Soviet Latvia and post-Apartheid South Africa. "Transformative Societies" elucidates the sociopolitical dimension of sustainability by querying the Indigenous value systems informing anti-authoritarian resistance movements, national transitions to democracy, and post-authoritarian sustainable development agendas.
"Transformative Societies" builds from my previous fieldwork in post-Apartheid South Africa and post-Soviet Latvia. In 2010, I worked with South African rooibos tea farmers to co-develop a participatory research, training, and networking initiative. As part of my inquiry, I conducted ethnographic fieldwork with a team of community-based farmer leaders. Our work resulted in a ‘participatory commodity networking’ approach to Fairtrade research and producer support. It also established a multi-paradigmatic foundation for sociopolitical analysis. In 2005, I conducted qualitative mixed methods research in post-Soviet Latvia. Having first worked in the country as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I returned under a Fulbright grant to examine the impacts of European integration on Latvia's organic farming movement. My study found significant growth in the number of farms undergoing organic conversion as well as a strategic shift in movement identity from organic farming to local food.
Education
PhD, Sociology, Colorado State University
MA, International Development and Social Change, Clark University
BA, Anthropology and French, University of Utah
Languages
English, native
French, excellent
Latvian, very good speaking ability
Afrikaans, good speaking ability
Spanish, elementary communication skills
PhD, Sociology, Colorado State University
MA, International Development and Social Change, Clark University
BA, Anthropology and French, University of Utah
Languages
English, native
French, excellent
Latvian, very good speaking ability
Afrikaans, good speaking ability
Spanish, elementary communication skills
