Research
A theory of the human demands rigorous research (or else it is mere ego).
As a trained anthropologist, my work aims to document and understand the political and economic systems human beings build to distribute (or discard) the things we need to survive. Food. Shelter. Love. And so on…
Select research projects
As an academic discipline, anthropology embraces a mode of inquiry at the intersection of art and science. Our quintessential method is “ethnography,” which means “writing culture”. This is my speciality.
My research is concerned with systems of value and waste. Particularly economies of manufactured scarcity. (Food waste in a world of hunger. Homelessness in a land of empty houses. Loneliness in a crowd. That sort of thing.)
In this way, I explore the “bio-political” and the “necro-political,” the ways in which capitalism and the state render some lives and objects valuable, and others disposable. This brings me to many fields, including the study of cities, food systems, housing economies, political movements.
Below are a number of ethnographic projects and publications I have worked on, both solo and in collaboration with colleagues.
A Mass Conspiracy to Feed People: Food Not Bombs and the world-class waste of global cities (2021 Duke University Press; photo by Raeanne Wiseman)
Sweeping the City: Encampments and the backlash against unhoused Americans (ongoing)
The Everyday Life of Fascism: A guide for research and resistance in a time of monsters (ongoing)
Unmaking Home: Policy, shelter, and housing justice in Victoria (ongoing)