I’m an anthropologist whose research focuses on human interactions with the environment, especially plants, in lowland South America and beyond. I am interested in how people and plants interact and develop embodied, multi-sensory relationships, and how both humans and plants understand and make sense of these ongoing engagements. I conducted my doctoral fieldwork with the Ramkokamekra-Canela indigenous community in northeast Brazil in 2012-2013, documenting gardening practices, interactions with cultivated plants, and valuations of varietal and biological diversity.

I received both my DPhil (PhD) in Anthropology (2015) and MPhil in Social Anthropology (2010) from the Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford. Prior to this, I completed my BA in International Studies and Spanish at American University (2007).

Currently, I am a postdoctoral research fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC (June 2015-June 2017).