Research

Interdisciplinary

Whether it’s knitting, baking, or reading, my brain works by seeing patterns and connecting those dots. My academic and teaching research are the same. That’s why I focus on interdisciplinary research, being lead by the questions to the methods and from there drawing from multi-disciplinary fields.

Law and Society

My interests in law are wide-ranging. The joke is that I developed a love of law early because my grandmother would read me law and history books while she was babysitting me.

I love to study, research, and teach about constitutional law, civil rights, civil liberties, and federalism. Questions about power, process, and institutions are fascinating to me. Public law was my earliest passion, but in my undergraduate research I began to study genocide and propaganda. Through this I became very interested in political violence and the ways in which institutions can be used to cause harm.

But I also like to study law and society from the perspective of the lived experience of those without power. This is why my dissertation explored the rights and rights consciousness in childbirth.

Public Health

When I was introduced to the social determinants of health, I found a way to merge my interests in law and political violence. I am currently deep-diving into social epidemiology. My future projects are going to explore the connection between public health and deindustrialization policies in the US, including health care deserts and the barriers to rural and urban health equity. The social, and especially legal determinants of health are where it’s at for me!

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