School of Social and Political Science

Background

I grew up in the foothills of Appalachia in Eastern Kentucky before studying at the University of Arizona, the University of Heidelberg, the University of Leipzig, and finally, the University of Toronto, where I did my PhD. After completing my doctoral studies, I was an Instructor in the Department of Anthropology at University of Toronto, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Institute for Advanced Study at Central European University, and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Union College in New York. Since joining University of Edinburgh, I have served as the Director of Admissions for the MSc and PhD in International Development, On-Course Director for the MSc in International Development, and Coordinator of Social Anthropology's campus Open-Day events.

I have a lifelong interest in the political economy of agriculture and natural-resource extraction. My research focuses on development, labor, food, energy, and environmental struggles in Latin America. For the past fifteen years, I have carried out fieldwork in Venezuela on state enterprises and rural cooperatives as well as development projects that seek to improve the country's landscapes and livelihoods. My recent work has also explored the dynamics of petro-populism and the redistribution of oil rents as a way of building political support. Currently, I am writing an ethnographic account of the controversial agrarian reform under the government of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

I deeply enjoy being in the classroom with students, and I have taught in a variety of educational institutions, including liberal arts colleges, comprehensive research universities, social science and humanities institutes, and adult education programs. I have also taught in five different countries (US, Canada, Hungary, the UK, Venezuela).

Teaching

Currently (2024-25 academic year), I am teaching the following courses:

• Anthropology and Environment (Undergraduate and Postgraduate, MA in Social Anthropology, etc.)

  This course introduces students to foundational theories and concepts in the anthropological study of human-environment relations as well as the ways in which contemporary ecological crises have influenced society and culture. 

• Social Development (Undergraduate, MA in Social Anthropology)

  This course deals with questions of poverty and human need as well as improvement projects that seek to enhance the living conditions and life chances of people around the world.

I also teach three out of the four core courses in the MSc in International Development:

• People First: Anthropology of International Development
• Research Design and Practice
• International Development: Institutions and Practices

As well as these core and options courses in the MA and MSc in Social Anthropology, the MA in Sustainable Development, and the MSc in International Development:

• Culture and Power
• Energy in the Global South
• Perspectives on Sustainable Development

Every year, I supervise postgraduate taught (MSc) dissertations in the International Development programme and undergraduate (MA) dissertations in Social Anthropology.

Publications

Selected Articles and Book Chapters 

“Tribute to a Criminological Ethnographer: Remembering Gary W. Potter.” Critical Criminology (forthcoming in 2025)

“Towards Neo-Structural Socialism? Profit and Dependency in Venezuelan State Enterprises,” Economy and Society (forthcoming 2025).

“Tropical Leninism or The Eighteenth Brumaire of Nicolás Maduro?,” Special Issue: Elections in the Americas, Dialectical Anthropology. 48(4): 459-474, 2024.

“The Devil and Florentino: Specters of Petro-Populism in Venezuela,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 66(3): 1-27, 2024.

“Breeding Sovereignty: The Production of Race, Nature, and Capital in Venezuela,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 29(2): 245-267, 2023.

“The Dangerous Gift of Universal Income: The Problem of Rentier Dependency in Venezuela” In The Danger of Gifts: From Antiquity to the Modern Age. Eds. Tudor Sala, Tracey Sowerby, and Alexandra Urakova. London: Routledge, 2022.

“The Right Hand of the Party: The Role of Peasants in Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution.” In Fifty Years of Peasant Wars in Latin America. Eds. Steve Striffler, Lesley Gill, and Leigh Binford. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2020.

“Coffee and Socialism in the Venezuelan Andes,” Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, 84: 1-17, 2019.

“From Reactionary Modernization to Endogenous Development: The Revolution in Hydroelectricity in Venezuela,” Dialectical Anthropology, 41(3): 241-262, 2017.

"Nature, Capital, and Neighbourhoods: Dispossession Without Accumulation?” Antipode, (with Patrick Bigger), 43(4): 986-1011, 2011.

Book Reviews and Commentaries

“Beyond Cold-War Mythology and Reifications: An Appraisal of The Object of Labor,” Dialectical Anthropology, 48(3), 2024.

Comment on “The Object of Labor: Commodification in Socialist Hungary,” Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology. 100(3), 2024.           

Comment on “Planning Labour: Time and the Foundations of Industrial Socialism in Romania.” Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology. 100(3), 2024.

“After the Boom,” Review of A Blessing and a Curse: Oil, Politics, and Morality in Venezuela and The Alternative University: Lessons from Bolivarian Venezuela. Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology (98), 2024.

“Economics and Inequality”: Review of A Research Agenda for Economic Anthropology.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 12(6): 885-886, 2020.