Curriculum Vitae
Core
Interests
memory, media, and narrative
race, rights, and protest
migration and social assimilation
place, the city, and the suburb
Methods
archival methods
oral history
participant observation
visual methods
Academic Appointments
2018 - Present | Adjunct Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology, Hofstra University
2019 - Present | Adjunct Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology, Columbia University
Languages
English (native speaker)
Spanish (fluent)
German (proficient)
Education
2017 | PhD in Sociology
Columbia University, New York, NY
2010 | MPhil in Sociology
Columbia University, New York, NY
2009 | MA in Sociology
Columbia University, New York, NY
2005 | Professional Certificate in Digital Filmmaking
NYU School of Professional Studies, New York, NY
2001 | BA in Latin American & Latino Studies
Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA
I have done coursework, training, and praxis in qualitative methods with a focus on archival methods, digital audio and video, documentary photography, ethnographic method and participant observation, oral history, and visual sociological methods at Dickinson College; in the Columbia University departments of sociology, political science, and architecture, planning, and preservation; at the Columbia University Interdisciplinary Center for Innovative Theory and Empirics (INCITE); at the International Center of Photography; and at the New York University School of Professional Studies.
I have 4+ years of work experience in legal support. As a legal assistant in the field of immigration law, I handled applications for temporary protected status (TPS), permanent residence under VAWA (the Violence Against Women Act) and NACARA (the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Refugee Act), and political asylum. In doing this work, I practiced and honed the interpretation/translation, active listening, and interviewing skills I use in my work as a sociologist today.
Professional Memberships
American Sociological Association
Association for Humanist Sociology
International Sociological Association
International Visual Sociology Association
Memory Studies Association
Museum Association of New York
Oral History Association
Professional Badges
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Cross-cultural
Study
2001 | Dickinson College Global Mosaic Program, Patagonia, Argentina
2000 | Institute for the International Education of Students (IIEE), Vienna, Austria
1999 | Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE)/Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic
1998 | Universidad de Málaga para Extranjeros, Málaga, Spain
My experiences with cross-cultural research and international study have encompassed Afro-Caribbean culture; social themes in the study of Dominican society; central/eastern European and Jewish culture; American fruit growers and Mexican/Latin American migrant labor; migration, ethnic/labor relations and the Argentine petroleum industry; German youth, xenophobia, and national identity; Austrian art and architecture; Spanish art and architecture, culture, literature, and politics; and German, Italian, and Spanish language and translation.
For my reflections on Dickinson College's American and Global Mosaic programs, see the Dickinson Magazine: https://www.dickinson.edu/news/article/1831/.)
Teaching
2018 - Present | Instructor
Department of Sociology, Hofstra University
Sociology of Human Rights
Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021
Contemporary Society (as standalone course and in Journalism, Media, and Society cluster)
two sections in Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021
Independent Fieldwork and Research Internships
Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020
(https://www.hofstra.edu/worldchangers/carecen.html)
Everybody Needs a Playlist for Revolution
scheduled Spring 2022
Culture & Expression: The City in Modernity
two sections in Spring 2018
2019 - Present | Instructor
Department of Sociology, Columbia University
Sociology of Human Rights
Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Summer 2021
2010-2011 | Teaching Assistant
Department of Sociology, Barnard College
Methods for Social Research (with Christel Kesler)
two sections in Fall 2010, Spring 2011
2008-2010 | Teaching Assistant
Department of Sociology, Columbia University
Food & the Social Order (with Priscilla Ferguson)
Spring 2010
American Society (with Thomas DiPrete)
Fall 2009
Evaluation of Evidence (with Joshua Whitford)
Fall 2008, Spring 2009
My teaching is also informed by the Columbia University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences' Fundamentals of College and University Teaching Seminar (June 2010); training for and work as Team Leader for Project Weltoffenheit in Osternienburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany (July-August 2002), assistant English-language teacher at the Akademisches Gymnasium in Vienna, Austria (Spring 2000), Board Member and Coordinator of the Zatae Longsdorff Center for Women at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA (2000-2001; 1998-1999), and Administrative and Program Services Volunteer for Rural Opportunities Inc. in Aspers, PA (Fall 1998)
Publications
2020 | Review of Graphic Memories of the Civil Rights Movement: Reframing History in Comics by Jorge J. Santos, Jr. Visual Studies
Current Projects
"Re-membering a Small Town: How we use tool kits to construct "wrong" tales" (journal article manuscript at editing stage)
"Civil Rights-Era Protest and Memory in a New York Suburb" (journal article manuscript at editing stage)
"Excavating Forgotten Ethnic Neighborhoods: At the Junction of Oral History and Archive" (journal article manuscript at editing stage )
"Bulldozing Broadway: How Societies Grieve Lost Places." (journal article manuscript at editing stage)
"Small Town Chinatown in the News: Reception, Visibility, and Harassment at the turn of the 20th Century" (journal article manuscript at editing stage)
"Race" and "Riots" in American Memory (book manuscript project at data collection stage)
Awards, Fellowships, Grants
2021 | Hofstra University Honors College Undergraduate Research Assistantship Program
"Race" and "Riots" in American Memory project selected (https://news.hofstra.edu/2021/03/15/research-assistants-gain-career-skills/)
2019 | Hofstra University Center for "Race", Culture and Social Justice Faculty Summer Research Grant
for research on "Race" and "Riots" in American memory
2009 | National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention
2008 | National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention
2007-2012 | Paul Lazarsfeld Fellowship, Department of Sociology, Columbia University
2001-2002 | J. William Fulbright Fellowship
for research on German youth, xenophobia, and national identity in Leipzig, Germany
Presentations
2021 | ""Race" and "Riots" in American Memory.""
Center for "Race", "Culture, and Social Justice, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, February 2021.
2018 | "The Use of Metaphor in Sociological Theorizing."
March 2018 Guest Lecture in senior thesis class, Department of Sociology, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.
2015 | "Reflections on Method and Educational Philosophy"
September 2015 Alumni Panel at the 20th Anniversary of the American and Global Mosaics, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.
2014 | "Wreaths, Rocks, and Wrong Tales"
February 2015 Roundtable on “Social Movements: Crossing Borders” at the Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting, New York, NY.
2014 | "Established-Newcomer Encounter and the Archaeology of Lost Narratives"
April 2014 Oral History Network Panel on "Migration: Memories & Perceptions" at the European Social Science History Conference, Vienna, Austria.
2011 | "Latinos on Long Island"
September 2011 Alumni Panel on "Latin American Immigration in Interdisciplinary Perspective"; preceded by lunch with students and talk on "Mixed Methods in Community Based Research" at Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.
2010| "Taste Astoria! Crossing Culinary Boundaries in the Multicultural City"
August 15-September 10, 2010 Let’s Eat Juried Art Competition. The Long Island Museum, Stony Brook, NY.
2009 | "Immigrant Entrepreneurship, Civic Participation, and Changing Suburban Narratives."
October 2009 Session on "Building the New Suburban Gateways" at the National Center for Suburban Studies' Conference on “The Diverse Suburb: History, Politics, and Prospects”, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY.
2009 | "Encountering the Multicultural City: Astoria, Queens, NYC"
April 2009 Conference on “Diversity in Place: Making Documentaries on the Multicultural City”, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Honolulu, HI.
2003 | "Youth in Leipzig and German Identity: "Well, we were born here, but we're not fascist or anything""
February 2003 Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
2001 | "Cross-Cultural Fieldwork"
April 2001 Common Hour Program on Americas' Mosaics, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.
2000 | "Marginality and Urban Poverty in the Dominican Republic: A Study of Life in Barrio Cienfuegos"
November 2000 National "International Education" Week Panel, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.
1999 | "Methodology and Friendship in Ethnography: Women Building Relationships through Storytelling"
March 1999 Community Studies Center Conference, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA.