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I am an Assistant Professor at University of Georgia's Odum School of Ecology and Policy Director of the River Basin Center. I am a quantitative social scientist focused on rural livelihoods, climate adaptation, and environmental policy. I take the view that policy research requires understanding both the politics of individual decision-making, as well as how policy design can facilitate or constrain these decisions in resource-constrained contexts. Consequently, my work examines these questions through three interconnected themes.
At a macro level, I examine how current policy designs impact governance and equity outcomes, focusing on the structure and patterns of rules and regulations that govern natural resources and climate adaptation. At a micro level, I study how individuals and households adapt to environmental stressors, and the inequalities that influence and result from these adaptations. Underpinning both these analyses is the recognition that policy choices and adaptation decisions are embedded in broader cultural, political, environmental, economic, and institutional contexts. Therefore, the third theme of my work investigates how feedbacks between individual decisions, policies, and these broader contexts continually shapes adaptive capacities for marginalized groups and system resilience to climate-change-induced stressors. |
While I primarily identify as a development scholar in agriculture, I am fortunate to work across diverse resource systems in the US and Europe, including pastoral, stormwater, and energy systems. My work finds coherence through the common policy challenges and solutions that emerge across these different landscapes and geographical contexts. Key methods I employ in my research include econometrics, coupled human-natural modeling, behavioral games, and natural language processing tools.
A cornerstone of my research is its interdisciplinary nature. Trained in a sustainability program, my work is defined by the field of study, not confined to any one discipline. Consequently, I frequently draw on multiple theoretical and methodological approaches to answer social welfare questions that often necessitate such an approach. While my comparative advantage lies in economics, political science, and human geography, my most significant work has often come from collaborations with anthropologists, rangeland ecologists, public policy scholars, and other interdisciplinary social scientists. I firmly believe that this collaborative approach not only broadens the scope of my research but also enhances its applied impacts. Most importantly, I find working in such interdisciplinary settings both fun and intellectually rewarding.
A cornerstone of my research is its interdisciplinary nature. Trained in a sustainability program, my work is defined by the field of study, not confined to any one discipline. Consequently, I frequently draw on multiple theoretical and methodological approaches to answer social welfare questions that often necessitate such an approach. While my comparative advantage lies in economics, political science, and human geography, my most significant work has often come from collaborations with anthropologists, rangeland ecologists, public policy scholars, and other interdisciplinary social scientists. I firmly believe that this collaborative approach not only broadens the scope of my research but also enhances its applied impacts. Most importantly, I find working in such interdisciplinary settings both fun and intellectually rewarding.
