My work combines research, international education, and publishing. For more details, see my CV.

My PhD dissertation research and first book project examine the creation of some of Italy’s most famous wines in the UNESCO heritage zones of Piedmont, highlighting the crucial roles of settled and seasonal immigrant labor in reproducing prized viticultural landscapes, and keeping traditional forms of working the land in practice. By exploring the co-dependent relations between native Italians, Balkan employees, and the vineyards they care for, I show how immigrants are often the custodians of Italian material heritage and traditions, and likely the protagonists of these crafts’ futures.

I began my career as an international researcher and educator as a student in Bologna, Italy in 2008. Since then, I have worked as a curriculum designer with Global Nomads Group in New York, a program leader with the Experiment in International Living, and a program designer and instructor for University of California’s Education Abroad Programs in Italy and the Mediterranean. My own courses and the programs I design ensure that students connect theory to practice, push beyond their assumptions and comfort zones, and come home with newfound self-confidence and global perspectives.

From 2010 to 2019, I managed two peer-reviewed research journals, both dedicated to promoting the work of emerging scholars and reaching audiences beyond the academy. Environment and Society: Advances in Research (Berghahn) publishes literature reviews of breaking social science on the pressing environmental issues of our times. Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies (University of California Press) features work from across the humanities and social sciences on the myriad of human relationships with food, agriculture, and gastronomy.