I study the relationship between high finance, environmental policy, and climate science in the context of state-based carbon emissions reduction schemes. I am particularly interested in market-based mechanisms for improving environmental quality, specifically CO2 reduction programs commonly known as ‘cap-and-trade.’ My research is situated in California, the first US state to implement an economy-wide emissions reduction plan. Fundamentally, I try to understand the role of the state in formulating and stabilizing markets in environmental commodities that would not exist without governmental intervention. I use these markets as a way to think further about social relations in a time when finance has become the driving force behind the global economy.

My master’s research touched on similar themes. My thesis was concerned with how economic crisis is realized and understood in small urban areas that did not have many economic activities in common with the sectors that precipitated the 2008 recession. That project allowed me to think about the nature of the home (as a commodity and as living space), the scalar relationships between disparate economies, and the limits of financial penetration into marginalized spaces.

In addition to research activities, I am active with the Political Ecology Working Group (politicalecology.org), the Geography Graduate Student Union, and I am very interested in critical and innovative pedagogy.