I received my Ph.D. in international political economy from York University in Toronto in 2002. I then spent two years working at the Catholic University of Louvain just outside Brussels before joining the faculty at Cal Poly Humboldt in the fall of 2004. I’ve spent a fair bit of time abroad—in places ranging from Belgium to Zimbabwe, from Canada to Russia.

In my research, I’m interested in exploring the intersection of politics, economics, and technology. I’ve published on questions arising from technological innovation in agriculture, particularly the debate over genetically modified foods in Europe, the United States, and Southern Africa. My current work takes me in a new direction, looking at the local food movement as a response to technological and economic imperatives of globalization. With our large number of cooperatives, community-supported agriculture, and farmers’ markets, Humboldt County is the perfect place to explore such a question.

Most of my classes are in the areas of international relations and comparative politics. I teach courses on development, Southern Africa, the politics of science and technology, global environmental politics, and the politics of food. I also teach our award-winning Model United Nations course, in which students participate in inter-collegiate competitions representing UN member states and debating issues currently under consideration by the actual United Nations.