I’m a PhD student in the Department of Geography and Sustainability at the University of Tennessee. My research revolves around the question of what a just energy transition looks like for the US South. I’m especially interested in industrial policy, the battery supply chain, and the energy system, with an emphasis on community- and labor-led policy. I investigate these topics through feminist political economy and urban political ecology lenses.

My master’s thesis examined how development agendas in the state of Kentucky are being revised and remobilized during the energy transition. In that project, I focused on local and state experiences with and around Georgetown-Scott County’s Toyota manufacturing plant and its diversification into electric vehicle assembly.

In other research, I’ve studied household energy insecurity in the South, housing justice in Appalachian Tennessee, and the challenges and opportunities that green industrial policy creates for workers around the world.