ABOUT

I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Government and Public Policy and the School of Sociology at The University of Arizona. I use ethnographic and qualitative methods to study violence, gender, race, and organizational inequality. My current book project - titled Before the Badge: How Academy Training Shapes Police Violence - is based on one year of ethnographic field work at four police training academies. In my book, I examine how the hiring and training at police academies emphasizes the use of violence, focusing on the ways that gender and race inform these processes.

My research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the American Association for University Women, among others. My work has been published in top-tier peer-reviewed journals, including in Social Problems, Law & Society Review, Qualitative Sociology, and Gender, Work & Organization. I received my Ph.D. in Sociology from The University of Texas at Austin and my bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania.