Campus Directory

Division Social Sciences Division

Department/College/Unit Latin American & Latino Studies

Title Associate Professor

Affiliation Faculty

Other UCSC Campus Affiliation Environmental Studies Department
Kenneth S Norris Center for Natural History
Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas

Faculty Type Regular Faculty

Web Site

Primary Office Location Merrill College Academic Building
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Biography, Education and Training

My research and teaching focus on the topics of hemispheric mobilities, social movements, Latin American hip hop, and inter-American relations. My first book was titled Argentina in the Global Middle East (Stanford University Press, June 2020), and you can find a companion ArcGIS StoryMap for this project here. This book reflects my broader interests in transregional connections as seen through the lens of South-South alliances, solidarities, mobilities and exchanges.

I am currently working on a new book project, provisionally titled American Venom: Animals, Science, & Hemispheric Relations. This project proposes venomous animals (snakes, spiders, scorpions) as a natural fulcrum for  for investigating the movement of capital, bodies, and forms of knowledge in the Americas over the course of the past century. 

Prior to joining LALS, I was an assistant professor of history at Western Carolina University, and a postdoctoral fellow at North Carolina State University. I received my PhD in History from the University of California, Davis in 2015, and my BA in Latin American Studies from Wellesley College in 2006. 

Research Interests

Mobilities; modern Latin American history; Argentina; Central America; global south networks; spatial history; inter-American relations; public health; natural history.

Awards, Honors and Grants

• - Building Belonging Grant, Institute for Social Transformation UCSC (2023)
• - Finalist: Mellon New Directions Fellowship (2022)
• - Hellman Family Foundation Fellowship (2020-21)
• - Runner Up: Alfred Thomas Book Award, Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies (2021)
• - Research Center for the Americas Individual Faculty Research Award (2019)
• - 2018 Sturgis Leavitt Article Award, Southeastern Council of Latin American Studies
• - Faculty Research Award, Western Carolina University (2018)
• - Khayrallah Postdoctoral Fellow in Middle East Migration Studies (2015-16)
• - Silas Palmer Fellow, Hoover Institute, Stanford University (2015)
• - Provost's Fellow University of California, Davis (2014-15)
• - Fulbright-Hays Fellow, Argentina (2013-14)
• - Foreign Language & Area Studies Grant, Arabic, US Dept. of Education (2010)

Selected Publications

• Argentina in the Global Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2020).

• "Venomous Company: Snakes & Agribusiness in Honduras" Arcadia: Explorations in Environmental History (May 2020).

• “Argentine & Egyptian History Entangled: From Perón to Nasser.” Journal of Latin American Studies, 50, no.3 (August 2018): 549-577.

• “From the Pampas to the Mashriq: Arab-Argentine Philanthropy Networks.” Mashriq & Mahjar: Journal of Middle East and North African Migration Studies 4, no.1 (2017): 4-28. 

• Co-Author with Rwany Sibaja. “Digital Approaches to Research & Pedagogy in Latin American Studies.” The Latin Americanist, 62, no.1 (2018).

   

• “Syrian Refugees in Latin America: Diaspora Communities as Interlocutors.” Latin American Studies Association Forum 47, no.1 (2016): 9-14.