I am a PhD candidate in Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center, studying how political and economic transformations reshape rural life. My dissertation examines how farmers along the Irish border sustain agrarian livelihoods under overlapping regimes of governance restructuring, environmental instability, and economic uncertainty. I focus in particular on how cross-border farming practices are being reconfigured as agricultural subsidy systems diverge in their governance, financial structures, and legal authority in the aftermath of Brexit. More broadly, my research sits at the intersection of political anthropology, economic anthropology, and critical agrarian studies. I am interested in how state policy, nationalism, and political economy are experienced and negotiated in everyday rural life.

I hold a BA in Comparative Literature from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, and an MA and MPhil in Anthropology from the CUNY Graduate Center. Alongside my research, I teach anthropology and interdisciplinary courses across the CUNY system, including at City College and John Jay College of Criminal Justice. I had research and teaching positions at Baruch College, Hunter College, LaGuardia Community College, the College of Staten Island, and the University of Puerto Rico.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Critical Agrarian Studies | Border Studies | Economic Anthropology | Anthropology of Food | Political and Legal Anthropology | Historical Anthropology | Rural Populism | Sovereignty | Nationalism
Regional Focus: The British Isles: the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland; Puerto Rico; Rural United States of America