My research is primarily in cultural sociology, global and transnational sociology, and environmental justice. Recent and ongoing works focus on the Compact of Free Association between the Federated States of Micronesia-United States and other matters regarding sovereignties, mobilities, environmental discourses, humanitarianism, and militarism in Oceania.  

My emerging project interprets Appalachia as a global place by linking concepts within critical Pacific, ocean, island, and Appalachian studies to analyze aquapelagic transformations in the Appalachian region. I am developing an historical sociology of Kentucky’s Lake Cumberland, which was created through the US Army Corps of Engineers’ impoundment of the Cumberland River during the mid-20^th century construction of the Wolf Creek Dam. This project situates the “Big Dam Era” and “American Lake” discourse within the globally connected sociologies of hydro-imperialism and highlights themes of eminent domain, islanding, sacrifice zones, tourist gazes, and settler culture.

My work takes an interdisciplinary approach that connects critical social sciences with political ecology, environmental humanities, international relations, critical Indigenous scholarship, and migration, development, and cultural studies.