Academic Training

I hold PhD and MS degrees in Development Sociology from Cornell University. I graduated from Cornell in 2002 and have worked as an assistant professor of sociology at St. Lawrence University since then. During my time at Cornell, I was a Fulbright Scholar to Spain, where I studied agricultural transitions among small-scale farmers in Northern Spain.

In addition to my graduate training, I also have a BA in Philosophy and a BS in Agricultural Science from The Pennsylvania State University, University Park.

Research Interests and Work in Progress

My research interests include the cultural and structural aspects of the political economy of the global agro-food system, as well as the sociology of food and rural and environmental sociology. Recently, my research has branched out in two distinct directions. 1) I’ve begun doing work examining the social and environmental impacts of nanotechnology. With Kenneth A. Gould, I’m currently under contract with Rowman and Littlefield to co-edit the book Nanotechnology, Social Change, and the Environment. 2) In addition to the nanotech work, I’ve also begun examining the linkages between the oppression of animals and humans under capitalism, and the political movement behind veganism. This is the topic I considered in my book Making a Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights (AK Press, 2008).

Recent Publications

Select Peer-Reviewed Publications

• “Being Seen/Being Heard: moving beyond visibility in the academy,” The Journal of Latinos and Education, 5(1), 2006.
• “Genetic engineering in agriculture and corporate engineering in public debate: Risk, Public Relations, and Public Debate over Genetically Modified Crops.” International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 11:428-436 (with Rajeev Patel and Peter Rosset), 2005
• “The Invisible Hand: Neoclassical Economics and the Ordering of Society.” Critical Sociology, Volume 31, Number 4, 2005, pp. 515-536(22) (with Alan Christopher Finlayson, Thomas A. Lyson, Andrew Pleasant, and Kai A. Schafft).
• “Hegemony, commodification, and the state: Mexico’s shifting discourse on agricultural germplasm.” Agriculture and Human Values 18:285-194 (with Francisco Martinez-Gomez), 2001
• “Scale of Agricultural Production, Civic Engagement, and Community Welfare.” Social Forces, September 2001, 80(1):311-327 (with Thomas A. Lyson and Rick Welsh)

Teaching Interests

I mainly teach classes on global processes, international development, political economy, social theory, and other topics that are related to my research interests, but I have also taught courses in qualitative methods; visual sociology; introductory sociology; race, class, and gender; and animal rights. Most recently, I’ve established two new courses for my department, one on the history and sociology of anarchist theory, and another on animal rights and human rights.

Though I am a specialist in my field, I was also trained broadly within the discipline of sociology, and my broad training is reflected in the courses that I have taught or could teach. Overall, my goal is to introduce students to the discipline, and to help them develop a social-analytic imagination (to borrow from Mills).