Research

I am an associate professor of sociology at the University of Oregon. My work examines race, gender, and reproduction. I am particularly interested in social cognition and the consequences of meaning-making for sexual and reproductive behavior. My research agenda centers projects that interrogate how everyday cultural constructions shape family processes, particularly at the nexus between embodiment and biomedical technologies.

Broadly, I am motivated by exploring the limits of biomedical frameworks in explaining and understanding undesired pregnancy as a public health phenomenon, as well as theorizing the social underpinnings of fundamental life processes that are often taken for granted as natural.

I am currently working on launching a project investigating risk tolerance in contraceptive use among couples with funding received from a K01 award from the National Institutes of Health.

Areas of Interest: Reproduction & Reproductive Justice, Health and Medicine, Social Cognition, Inequality, Intersectionality, Body and Embodiment, Family, Mixed methods.

Teaching

My teaching interests are in family, health, gender, race & ethnicity, social inequality, social cognition, risk and uncertainty, and quantitative methods.

At the University of Oregon, I teach graduate and undergraduate courses in statistics, health, and sex and gender. At Occidental, I taught introductory sociology, families, health and illness, and statistics, While at Occidental, I was the winner of the 2016 Donald R. Loftsgordon Memorial Award for Outstanding Teaching and the 2017 Linda and Tod White Teaching Prize.

In the past, I have served as an instructor for an undergraduate course on race, class, and gender at Santa Clara University, and as a teaching assistant for courses on racial identity and sex and love at Stanford University.

CV

You can download a recent CV here.