Writer & Editor
My book project looks at the rise of behavioral economics as cultural common sense and a refusal of politics. It's got everything, Larry Summers, Jeffrey Epstein, Russia, bad TV, rideshare algorithms, and public intellectuals in the Obama administration. Working title, Behave! The Science of Influence in American Popular Culture. Under representation at Massie McQuilkin, but ask me for more!
I'm now working on the book and other writing projects while teaching full-time, back in the classroom after taking a leave to act as Editor-in-Chief of Los Angeles Review of Books. Before that, I was section editor for Economics & Finance at LARB.
Before graduate school, I worked as a reporter for The New Haven Advocate and The Boston Phoenix, and did some stringing in South America, and I’m still on the board of The Online Journalism Project.
Associate Professor, English Language & Literature Whittier College
I teach media studies, critical theory, research methods, contemporary American literature, and creative writing at Whittier College. I started there ten years ago, and before I went on leave, I was Associate Dean and redesigned the Whittier Scholars program in individualized majors and independent curricula.
I also this year taught two media studies courses at the University of Southern California, in the School of Cinematic Arts: an upper-level lecture class on Reality TV and a graduate seminar on the History of TV.
Freelance & Consulting
On top of my freelance writing and academic research, I teach writing workshops, with a special focus on helping academics bring their research to a wider public. I help writers at all levels pitch and articulate their ideas for specific audiences.
I've been a writer and a writing instructor for over a decade and a half, in a wide variety of formats. My teaching philosophy and my praxis draw on my experience as a reporter, editor, and writer, on my ability to code switch in context. I'm also informed by my meditation practice and my certification as a mindfulness instructor.
The systems that have conventionally supported and funded journalism and the humanities are in total flux and under threat. This only makes the foundational work of rebuilding rituals and practices around reading and writing more crucial.
I’m not taking on new individual clients right now. unless you have worked with me before or are ready to pay workshop rates. But if you are a writer or a group of writers with an urgent need to get back in touch back in with your sense of purpose, please contact me. What are the conversations that matter to you? How do you want to participate, and listen? Who are you trying to reach, and why?
