Born and raised in San Francisco, I received my bachelors degree from the University of California-San Diego. After a year working in southern Chile—with a brief, career-altering trip to Brazil—I undertook my PhD in Latin American history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I completed my doctorate in spring 2017 and subsequently moved to Scotland to begin a lectureship at the University of Edinburgh. 

My research explores the social, rural, and environmental history of Latin America. Whereas most scholarship on Latin America, especially for the modern period, focuses on people and events in urban areas, I seek to show the parallel and independent histories that unfolded in the countryside. The rural experiences of social struggle and political opposition challenge both the spatial and the conceptual frameworks commonly used to study ideas of citizenship and national inclusion. Without discounting the importance of urban histories—and their close links to rural environments—I approach Latin American history from the perspective of the various people and landscapes that dot the countryside.