I am a human-environment geographer and my research lies at the intersections of water infrastructure, agrobiodiversity, and farmer soil management practices. I broadly engage geographic literatures of political ecology, socioecological systems, and critical development studies. My research methodologies are informed by anticolonial scholarship, particularly decolonial feminisms. Regionally focused in Latin America, I have ongoing research projects Colombia, with previous research in Argentina and Nicaragua. I am committed to inter-disciplinary research and have collaborated with scholars from Bioversity International as well as agronomists from the National University of Colombia, Bogotá.
My current research examines the social-environmental linkages between soil and water in irrigation megaprojects. Specifically, my research project undertakes a multi-faceted investigation into (a) how soil management practices change according to access to irrigation water, (b) the social-environmental stressors centered on soil and water that accompany irrigation megaprojects, and (c) how experiences of stressors feedback into governance. Applying a lens of feminist political ecology, the research questions are attuned to differing experiences according to gender and ethnicity. I examine these questions within three irrigation megaprojects in Colombia’s Tolima Valley.
Funding:
National Science Foundation
- Graduate Research Fellowship Program
- Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award
Fulbright Hays Program
- Doctoral Dissertation Research Award, 2018-2019
Penn State’s Department of Geography & Penn State’s Global Programs
Research presentations, Spring 2020:
- Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers 2020 (virtual)
- Congress of the Latin American Studies Association 2020 (virtual)