Freelance (various outlets)

Medill Reports (Northwestern University)

Anthrodendum

I’m a contributing writer and the social media manager at Anthrodendum, a web publication devoted to “doing anthropology in public” — providing well-written relevant discussion of sociocultural anthropology that everyone will find accessible. Contributing writers range from graduate students to tenured professors to anthropologists working outside the academy.

Academic writing

When Nature Invades: Resident Perceptions of the Austerity-Driven “Re-Wilding” of an Urban Park in Rock Island, Illinois

Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development, Columbia University

In an era of rapid urbanization, a changing climate, and deepening political division, parks represent increasingly important places for urban residents to interact with, and feel connected to, the natural environment and the mental and physical health benefits it provides. Unfortunately, in an age of austerity politics, parks and recreation departments in Midwest Rust Belt cities often lack adequate funding to maintain such public spaces. Recently, the business-minded Rock Island, Illinois Department of Parks and Recreation has implemented a creative cost-saving management solution: “naturalizing” sections of its city parks. Using a mixed-methods approach, this interdisciplinary study aims to discover how the community members near two representative urban parks in Rock Island perceive this economically motivated “re-wilding” of long-manicured and domesticated urban nature. Resident reactions reveal enduring conceptions of a nature-culture divide, as well as the upper class, White ideologies that have historically shaped park construction and use in the United States.