About Me

I earned my Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Suffolk University.

My research is guided by three central questions:

1. How do local organizations and community groups change—and at times, resist change?

2. How are social and symbolic boundaries constructed and dismantled?

3. How is the broader symbolic and cultural order re-mapped through conflicts between community groups?

Using ethnographic, interview, and visual methods, my work bridges the sociology of cities and communities, culture, and politics. I explore how communities interact—often in tension—with extralocal institutions and agencies. This thread of my research has been published in Journal of Urban Affairs and International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.

My current book project, based on my dissertation, investigates how political culture shapes community life in a small, gentrifying city in New York’s Hudson Valley. I ask: what happens to a town’s sense of self and social order when successive waves of urban migrants arrive, bringing new values, conflicts, and identities? Through deep ethnographic fieldwork, I examine how residents construct political identities, draw social and symbolic boundaries, and build community across lines of difference through practices of recognition.

Alongside my research, I am a committed educator. I have designed and taught a range of core and elective courses across diverse classroom settings. In recognition of my teaching, I was twice named a finalist for the UMass Distinguished Teaching Award, the university’s highest honor for excellence in instruction.