My research and teaching interests revolve around land, food, traditional/local ecological knowledge, biocultural diversity, and political ecology. Current research, exhibit, and media projects are focused on the historical agroecology of the Native South, the ecological and ethnobotanical knowledge of freedom seekers traversing the Underground Railroad, and auto-ethnographic explorations of my home county (Cumberland County, TN) and its regional context.  

In addition to research activities, I also maintain active practices in ecological gardening/farming and landscape design, seed conservation, and land-based crafts (“landcraft”). These practices inform my teaching at least as much as my formal academic research, manifesting in heavily-experiential course offerings. This is reflective of a belief that we learn best through multi-sensory, embodied engagement, grounded in a framework of critical systems analysis. This means building affective multi-species relationships (learning not just about maize, for example, but from and with maize) while also understanding the historical and cultural legacies that shape divergent local experiences of the modern world system.

I maintain a strong affinity for and commitment to the socio-ecological condition (historical, contemporary, and future) of my home region of Southern Appalachia, the greater Southeast, the Southern Plains, and Mesoamerica. When not teaching at Guilford, my partner and I care for a small mountain homestead and eco-cultural education center in Western North Carolina.