I am a human geographer and I study economic development and environmental politics. My research focuses on rural economic transitions and the social implications of decarbonization. In my current research projects, I study the decline of the coal industry in Central Appalachia and the politics surrounding economic transition in the Appalachian region.

I have two active research projects: one studying the human dimensions of emerging forest carbon offset regimes in Central Appalachia; and a second project tracing the financial geographies of coal mine bankruptcies, bond forfeiture, and the looming crisis of funding the environmental reclamation of strip mines.

I have also studied the politics of development, climate change, and economic transition on the US Gulf Coast and in the Brazilian Amazon. My scholarship contributes to the fields of political ecology, development studies, and studies of race and gender. I consider how the social outcomes of rural economic transitions in an era of climate politics speak to debates within these fields of study.

I am interested in working with students broadly interested in rural politics, economic development, and climate politics, and decarbonization.