Biography
I am a gender and inequality scholar, criminologist, and ethnographer whose work focuses on the processes through which inequalities are enacted, reproduced, and/or challenged in various structural contexts. I use qualitative and quantitative methodologies to study violent crime; sexual victimization; community-based reactions to crime, disorder, and formal/informal policing strategies; and the education of marginalized youth. My work appears in journals such as Women’s Studies International Forum; The Journal of Contemporary Ethnography; Race and Justice; Sex Roles and Feminist Criminology.
My approach to scholarship involves the tight integration of research, teaching, and community-based action. This is reflected in my current primary research agenda: a multi-site collaborative ethnography of community gardens in the Southern United States. I am also involved in a collaborative peer interview-based study of young people’s understandings of barroom aggression. I regularly involve students in my ongoing research agenda by providing opportunities to collect and analyze data in every single class I teach. Mentoring is a priority for me. I therefore work and co-author with my graduate students; supervise a wide variety of independent student research projects; and volunteer with the Ronald McNair Undergraduate Research Program, ASPIRE Undergraduate Research Program, and the Pre-Doctoral Scholars’ Institute (PDSI) in addition to engaging in a host of informal mentoring activities.
Education
PhD: University of Massachusetts Amherst (2008)
Curriculum Vitae
Courses recently taught at LSU
(Syllabi are for illustrative purposes and subject to change)
- SOCL 4463: Gender and Crime
- SOCL 4465: Drugs and Society
- WGS 2500: Intro. to Women's and Gender Studies
- WGS 3150: Feminist Theory
- WGS 4500: Gender, Crime, and Community