I am Associate Professor of Anthropology and an associate member of the School for International Studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. I am also co-Editor of the journal, The Anthropology of Work Review. Before coming to Simon Fraser, I was a postdoctoral fellow in the Thompson Writing Program at Duke University. I received my PhD in anthropology from Brown University.
My research explores questions of the human condition that emerge in experiences of work, economy, and urban life in Latin America. My award-winning book, Reclaiming the Discarded: Life and Labor on Rio's Garbage Dump (Duke University Press, 2018), traces the life projects of thousands of self-employed workers who earn a living by collecting recyclables on a garbage dump in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I am currently working on two new projects. The first examines Brazil’s largest consumer debt crisis in its history through an ethnographic study of the lived experience of default. The second explores the anticipatory politics of Brazilians who are making a new life in Vancouver, Canada.
At Simon Fraser University, I teach graduate and undergraduate courses on contemporary ethnography, social theory, research methods, labor and capitalism, and the anthropology of Latin America.
View my curriculum vitae.
My research explores questions of the human condition that emerge in experiences of work, economy, and urban life in Latin America. My award-winning book, Reclaiming the Discarded: Life and Labor on Rio's Garbage Dump (Duke University Press, 2018), traces the life projects of thousands of self-employed workers who earn a living by collecting recyclables on a garbage dump in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I am currently working on two new projects. The first examines Brazil’s largest consumer debt crisis in its history through an ethnographic study of the lived experience of default. The second explores the anticipatory politics of Brazilians who are making a new life in Vancouver, Canada.
At Simon Fraser University, I teach graduate and undergraduate courses on contemporary ethnography, social theory, research methods, labor and capitalism, and the anthropology of Latin America.
View my curriculum vitae.