University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
Scripps College
I grew up in Jamestown, California, a small rural town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. I moved to the Los Angeles area for college, and have since been fascinated by the relationship between rural and urban communities in states like California and New York as well as globally. I received my BA from Scripps College in Claremont, CA, and my MA and PhD in sociocultural anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles. I have learned Hindi, Urdu, and Kannada in order to conduct extended fieldwork in India.
My research is primarily concerned with the interrelationships among food, the environment, and urban development. I am particularly interested in how shifting food systems offer a lens to understand sociopolitical and economic anxieties related to urbanization and environmental change, such as the effects of pesticide overuse and contaminated water sources on urban consumers' bodies. My current book project examines these themes in the context of Bengaluru (Bangalore), India. As the heart of India’s booming information technology industry, Bengaluru offers a particularly productive site to examine how shifting global economies and rapid urban development affect regional food networks. This in turn helps us to understand changing conceptions of health, sustainability, and social and economic responsibilities.
Dissertation Year Fellowship, UCLA (2017)
Society for Urban, National, and Transnational/Global Anthropology (SUNTA) Graduate Paper Prize (2016)
Charles E. and Sue K. Young Graduate Student Award for exemplary academic achievement, research, and service to the campus and community, UCLA (2016)
Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, U.S. Department of Education (2014)
Language Fellowship, U.S. Department of Education, to attend American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) Kannada Language Program (2014)
International Institute Fieldwork Fellowship, UCLA (2014)
Asia Institute Graduate Fellowship Award, UCLA (2014)
American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) Hindi Summer Language Program Fellowship (2012)
2018. Co-authored with Allison Carruth. "Wild Cuisines, Risky Futures: Reimagining What We Consider Edible Species." KCET, August 21. https://www.kcet.org/food-living/wild-cuisines-risky-futures-reimagining-what-we-consider-edible-species-0
2018. "Grow what you eat, eat what you grow": urban agriculture as middle class intervention in India." Journal of Political Ecology vol. 25, pp. 221-238.
2017. "Teaching with Hope: An Introduction." Teaching Tools, Cultural Anthropology website, January 23. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/1061-teaching-with-hope-an-introduction
2017. “Work and Nonwork in Pericapitalist Sites.” Dialogues, Cultural Anthropology website, June 8. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/work-and-nonwork-in-pericapitalist-sites
2017. "Teaching with Hope: Anand Pandian on Cultivating Possibility in the Classroom.” Teaching Tools, Cultural Anthropology website, June 23. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/1157-teaching-with-hope-anand-pandian-on-cultivating-possibility-in-the-classroom
2017. “Rising Temperatures.” Anthropology News website, July 28. doi: 10.1111/AN.521