Hi! I am an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland.  I am a qualitative researcher with research interests in land-use and development. I completed postdoctoral training at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, and received a PhD in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley and a BA in Social Studies from Harvard University.

Currently, I am conducting research on the local politics of the data center industry in the U.S.

My past research has examined investment migration markets, transformations in land-use in China, and construction and real estate markets in China. My book, Beneath the China Boom: Labor, Citizenship, and the Making of a Rural Land Market, won multiple awards from the American Sociological Association.  Other pieces have also been published in Politics & Society, Gender & Society, Journal of Peasant Studies, and The China Quarterly.