I am a full time researcher and award winning college instructor. At Purdue, I taught eight original courses including Introduction to Sociology Through Science Fiction, Marriage and Family, and Deviance and Social Control. My courses have been online, in-person, and hybrid. I tailor each course based on the format and interests/majors/career goals of my students. See my teaching page for in class activities, project ideas, and writing prompts.

I received my PhD in Sociology from Purdue University in 2022. My research interests include social movements, racial inequality, gender, digital sociology, and the law. In high school I became interested in food insecurity - why it happened and how to solve it. I dedicated my college career to studying sociology and activist art. Studying food insecurity led me to studying economic inequality and ultimately gender and racial inequalities in the U.S. In graduate school, I shifted my focus to structural inequalities, policy evaluation, and the sociology of law. 

After defending my dissertation, I began work as a researcher and postdoc at the Center for the Study and Prevention of Gender-Based Violence. I currently split my time between research projects and public sociology.

My public sociology includes producing op-eds, blogs, and podcasts. Academic research is essential to good policy-making but too often valuable information is paywalled, filled with jargon, or hidden in specialty academic publications. I believe making research accessible to the general public is a necessary public service. 

TDLR; I teach both formal classes and through public engagement and I research how bodies are assigned value and controlled through state policy and social practices.

Dissertation Work

Research Projects

My dissertation project explores legal frames, intersectional solidarity, and social media use in the Reproductive Justice movement. Using data from Instagram I follow six Reproductive Justice organizations' messaging and relationship to the law over time.   

In addition to my dissertation, I am currently working on several projects including decision-making in intercountry and transracial adoptions, gender and community on TikTok, political performances on Instagram, and protective orders related to intimate partner violence.