A former journalist and head writer/speechwriter for the mayor of New Orleans, I investigate intersections of power and the environment. My dissertation examines the troubled history of extraction in Louisiana’s coastal delta and how certain practices are naturalized through technical discourses upheld by the state’s political economy. I examine the ethical and social implications of maintaining what the state euphemistically calls its “working coast” with restoration projects funded by oil and gas revenues. I have developed a genealogy of extraction that explicates the role of science and technology in naturalizing industrial practices that have exhausted the region’s natural resources while creating conditions for intervention that rationalizes those practices. I received my Ph.D. in Communication from the University of California San Diego. I also hold a master's in journalism from the University of California Berkeley.
