I am PhD candidate in the Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies Doctoral Programme (DENVI) in affiliation with the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry and Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS). In addition to my doctoral work I am the project coordinator for the Global Extractivisms and Alternatives Initiative (EXALT) at the Faculty of Social Sciences. I also co-host the EXALT Initiative podcast, a monthly conversation with academics, artists, and activists (www.exalt.fi). 

I have many research interests including:

• Food system redesign
• Agroecology
• Agroecological urbanism
• Sense of place
• Geographic imagination
• Sustainable transitions
• Transition narratives 
• Extractivim(s) 
• Data/Intellectual Extractivism

On the broadest level my work studies food systems. This discipline brings together ecological, social, cultural, political, and economic aspects. I specifically combine rural sociology and human geography methods to examine the socio-cultural aspects of food system redesign in the modern countryside. From rural sociology, I borrow ethnographic techniques to build an intimate understanding of the people involved in the food system. From human geography, I utilize spatial tools, like participatory mapping to understand individual’s conceptualizations of locality as it relates to food. I marry these methods to understand the potential socio-cultural barriers to food system redesign in the Finnish countryside.

I have co-organized several different courses including:

• Spring 2022 - UniPID course Extractivisms and Alternatives (Master level)

Doctoral level courses for the DENVI and PSRC doctoral programs at University of Helsinki, including:

• Spring 2021 - HYMY 919: Popular Scientific Communication for Academics 
• Spring 2020 - PYAM 965: Global Extractivisms: Unpacking and Broadening the Concept
• Fall 2019 - DENVI 010: DENVI Writing Retreat (Tvärminne Zoological Station)
• Spring 2019 - DENVI 010: DENVI Writing Retreat (Lammi Biological Research Station)
• Fall 2018 - DENVI 503: The philosophy of sustainability science
• Spring 2018 - DENVI 101: Toward integrated perspectives for Sustainability research - A Baltic PhD alliance
• Fall 2017 - DENVI 501: Transformation: Food systems, agroecology, and the Web of Life

In addition, I have served as Teaching Assistant at University of Helsinki and University of Montana. 

• Fall 2017 - ECGS-002: Sustainability Science Concepts (University of Helsinki)
• Fall 2014 - GPHY 335: Water Policy and GPHY 468: Community/Regional Development (University of Montana)
• Spring 2013 - GPHY 433: Cultural Ecology and GPHY 338: Mountains and Society (University of Montana)
• Fall 2012 - GPHY 141: Geography of World Regions and GPHY 335: Water Policy (University of Montana)