Garbage tells us a story about who we are, where we've been, what feels valuable and useful, what we need and what we don't need. While garbage is often deemed useless, I turn to it as a rich resource for analyzing the current state of politics, economics, environment, and society. My background is in anthropology and geography, and my MA project at Louisiana State University leveraged both skillsets to analyze the urban metabolism of food waste in New Orleans from 2017-2019. Following my MA, I directed a non-profit called Food Rescue US - New Orleans, co-chaired the food recovery working group for the New Orleans Food Policy Advisory Council, and organized a small-scale neighborhood garden and compost site. I return to school to reunite with my passion and interest in research, writing, and education. For my dissertation, I plan to focus on the urban political ecology and political economy of waste.

Faculty Advisor: Veronica Jacome