Research Overview

My research examines interfaces between economy and ecology, culture and nature, value and power.  While I have undertaken the bulk of my ethnographic research in the Congo River basin, I have also worked in Southeast Asia and on Africa-Asia engagements.  Because I live and work in New York City, some of my newest research looks at ethnographic contexts here at home.

My current research looks at three main topics: relations between people and primates, focusing on the emergence of HIV/AIDS in the forest of southeastern Cameroon; cultural values of elephants, ivory, and global commodity chains that link the Congo River basin with both Asian and Euro-American markets; and cultural values of energy.

Each of these projects addresses overlapping conceptual themes: relations between culture and nature, economy and ecology, and value and power.