Anthropologist, Researcher, Writer, and Gun Violence Victims Advocate
Contributions
CONFERENCES
NOV 2018
“Sires, Spires, and the State: Neoliberal Multiculturalism, Racial Violence, and Shifting Gay Public Space in Chicago.” American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting. Session: “Queer/ed Spaces, Anthropological Openings.” San Jose, California. ​
APR 2018
"Racial Violence in Chicago's Boystown: Discourse, Power, and Gay Neighborhood (Re)Production." Central States Anthropological Society (CSAS) Annual Meeting and Conference. Session: Intersections of Power: Race, Gender, and Sexuality. Indiana University at Bloomington.
APR 2018
"Boystown: Formation Narratives and Racial Violence in Chicago’s Gay Neighborhood," Queer Studies Conference: Prisons, Borders, and Pipelines: Toward a Queer Abolitionist Movement, Session: Queer Inside and Outside. University of North Carolina at Asheville.
NOV 2016
"Pulse: The Neoliberal Trap of Gay Space," Spaces and Flows Conference: Planetary Urbanization in the Modern World, University of Pennsylvania
NOV 2012
"Boystown: Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in Chicago's Gay Neighborhood," American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco
MAR 2011
"Bodies in Built Queer Space: The History, Politics, and Economy of Chicago's Northalsted Street," Gender, Sexuality and Urban Space Conference, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MAY 2010
"The Queer Politics of Cyber-Sociality: The Political Possibilities and Limitation of Queer(ing) Social Networking Sites," Queertopia: The Radical Potential of Queer(ing) Politics, Northwestern University
APR 2010
"Junk in the Trunk: A Queer Exploration of Truck Nutz as Contemporary Material Culture," Gender, Bodies, and Technology Conference, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
FEB 2010
"Junk in the Trunk: Gender, Race, and the Political Economy of Truck Nutz," Thinking Gender Conference, University of California at Los Angeles
DEC 2009
"Junk in the Trunk: A Queer Exploration of Truck Nutz as Contemporary Material Culture," GWS Brown Bag Speaker Series, University of Illinois at Chicago
MAY 2009
"Junk in the Trunk: A Queer Perspective of the Testicle Trend in the Southern United States," Queertopia: (Re)Imagining Communities, Northwestern University
PUBLICATIONS
Fall 2018
"Machine of Desire: Race, Space, and Contingencies of Violence in Chicago's Boystown," Dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Anthropology.
MAR 2018
"The Pulse Nightclub Shooting: Connecting Militarism, Neoliberalism, and Multiculturalism to Understand Violence," republished in Open Anthropology, Enough: Anthropologists Take on Gun Violence 6(1).
OCT 2016
"The Pulse Nightclub Shooting: Connecting Militarism, Neoliberalism, and Multiculturalism to Understand Violence," in North American Dialogues 19(2): 102-116.
OCT 2016
"Boystown: Gay Neighborhoods, Social Media, and the (Re)production of Racism," in No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies, ed. E. Patrick Johnson. Duke University Press.
AUG 2006
"Faggot: A Sociolinguistic Perspective of Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Inequality," Masters Thesis, University of Missouri at Kansas City
MAY 2001
"Same-Sex Marriage: An Anthropological Perspective," Undergraduate Honors Thesis, University of Central Florida
AWARDS AND ACCOLADES
2017 University of Illinois at Chicago, Image of Research Honorable Mention, Affect and Solidarity Constructed
2012 President’s Research in Diversity Travel Award
2011 Graduate Student Council Travel Award
2010 Charles Reed Memorial Fund Award
2010 Alice J. Dan Dissertation Award
2010 Graduate College Student Presenter Award
2010 Graduate Student Council Travel Award
2009 The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality Student Research Grant
2008 University of Illinois Chancellor’s LGBT Seed Grant
2008 Kellogg Company Rainbow Merit Scholarship
2006 Out and Equal in the Workplace annual conference summer scholarship
2005 University of Missouri at Kansas City Chancellor’s Award
2004 University of Central Florida Founder’s Scholar Award
2003 University of Central Florida Founder’s Scholar Award
2001 Derby Lane Scholarship
2001 Florida Bright Futures Scholarship