Bio:
I grew up in Chicago, which has long been an immigrant-receiving city, and one in which questions of race and ethnicity, inequality, geography, and access to power are always in the air. Over the course of my education, I came to approach the richness and challenges of American diversity through the study of language in interaction, the linguistic performance of group belonging, and intercultural dialog. In my early career, after fieldwork with African immigrants, I worked on developing new ideas about child and youth (im)migrants and human development.
Recently, I’ve joined a research project that looks at Violence Against Women as a global phenomenon. In particular, I am looking at streaming video on demand and how rape myths are or are not perpetuated in visual and textual discourses of popular culture.
Despite having two different research areas, I’m most engaged with trying to frame how the rich fabric and sophisticated discourses of American class, ethnic and gender difference can inform a progressive basis by which to approach the environmental and social challenges of the Anthropocene. Clearly, we need to change quickly, but out of what, and how?