I am a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University. I am interested in borders–both as a geopolitical production but also as a means of discussing inclusion and exclusion within Canadian urban life. As a student of Nicholas Blomley, my research aims to consider how conflicting claims to jurisdiction, sovereignty, and policing (re)define immigrant mobility. My current work considers how from map to border checkpoint “Canada” and the “United States” perform distinct legal and geopoltical claims to space–and what challenges that raises to identity, economy, and spatial justice. While my current work actively draws upon Canadian and American law, my work is interdisciplinary by nature--looking to performativity studies, border studies, and public policy as useful in understanding the way borders work in North America (and increasingly, around the world).
I maintain a distinct, though not always separate, interest in critical food studies, specifically on trends in food consumption. I am particularly inspired by the work of the Southern Foodways Alliance in my own investigations of cultural practices around food and eating, with an eye to the American South. I teach courses around foodie culture and consumption practices and the US South within our Continuing Studies program. More information on my teaching--both at the undergraduate level and for advanced learners can be found here as well.