I am a PhD candidate in Sociology and Rural Sociology at the University of Wisconsin Madison. I expect to complete my degree this December, 2011. In the most general terms, my research focuses on how broad-based economic change affects people's daily lives. To this end, I draw on the sociology of agri-food systems, economic sociology, rural sociology, economic change and development, and theories of globalization. As a natural laboratory for observing such transformations, Russia provided a fascinating site to conduct my dissertation research.

Apart from this research, I am involved in an on-going project concerned with enrollment in public health insurance. I also have an incurable fondness for maps, spatial relationships, and Geographic Information Systems.