Research Projects
Since 2010 I have conducted ethnographic research in the Peruvian Amazon and in the urban United States. Here you find information about my past and ongoing research projects, as well as future research in Peru and the US.
The Persistence of Illicit Coca in Amazonian Peru
Amidst falling petroleum prices and ongoing conflicts surrounding extractive industries, Peru’s economy remains buoyed by the illicit market in coca leaves and raw cocaine paste (pasta básica de cocaína, or pbc). While historically grown on the eastern foothills of the Andes Mountains, the epicenter of illicit cultivation has recently shifted to the political department of Loreto, near Peru’s borders with Brazil and Colombia. I study the emergence of illicit coca cultivation in Loreto, and its impacts on smallholder farmers, traditional coca consumption and pbc use.
The Expert Knowledge of People Who Use Drugs
My ongoing research explores the expert knowledge and practices of self-care among people who use drugs. Drawing on prior research among coca paste smokers in Peru, I currently study regimes of self-care among people who use opioids and methamphetamine in the urban U.S.. As the Co-Investigator and ethnographer on two NIH/NIDA-funded studies on substance misuse, I explore how techniques of self-treatment are produced within the particularities local risk environments.
Ways of Knowing in Ethnographic Research
A key question engaged by my research practice is how collaborative multimedia methodologies might generate new ways of knowing in anthropology. In the past, I co-produced a semi-fictional film with recovering drug addicts about their social worlds, and collaborated with two Ticuna indigenous communities to explore local relations with the environment. My current project uses participatory photography to explore the everyday experience of people with opioid use disorder in the urban U.S.
An Ethnography of Overdose
This project brings together ethnographic research with people who use drugs, addiction treatment professionals, clinicians and law enforcement to explore how drug overdose has been transformed into a key issue of concern in public health, and the sorts of relationships, coalitions, interventions, and crises have emerged through this transformation.