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; 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.  Established and sustained with support from various granting agencies and the hard work of many LSU undergraduate/graduate students, the project is now entering its fourth year.  My current “side” projects include a peer interview-based study of young people’s understandings of barroom aggression; an analysis of feminist/post-feminist thematics in the Bratz film series for young children; and an ethnographic investigation of the dynamics of cultural education in a Turkish Community Center.

 

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 whole host of informal mentoring activities.

 

Curriculum Vitae