CURRENT PROJECTS
I collaborate with researchers, activists & organizers, community leaders, and others in the pro-democracy space to develop civic innovations. I coordinate with these stakeholders as project teams, establish research agendas, define program goals, and implement evaluation metrics to accomplish short-, medium-, and long-term objectives.
I also monitor, analyze, and write about emerging trends across religion, culture, and justice.
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The SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University has been leading initiatives to support, define, and consolidate an agenda for democracy in the United States.
As a consultant and project coordinator, I lead these projects at both a strategic and tactical level (from planning and methodology selection to execution and presentation of findings). I help curate off-the-record convenings that bring together elected officials, election administration officials and experts, advocates, scholars, and leaders in order to deliver the right type of data and insights at the right time.
My portfolio includes projects that address:
(re)Building trust in elections;
Developing an intermestic strategy for democratic resilience; and
Engaging & activating core social pillars.
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Activating Faith: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference Fights for Freedom
https://horizonsproject.us/2761-2/
Going Pro (Bono): Lawyers Provide Support Against the Muslim Ban
https://horizonsproject.us/going-pro-bono-lawyers-provide-support-against-the-muslim-ban/
“Ask your Doctor if Voting is Right for You!” American Doctors Speak Out on Voting
https://horizonsproject.us/ask-your-doctor-if-voting-is-right-for-you-american-doctors-speak-out-
on-voting/
US Lawyers Use Litigation Against Assaults on Democracy
https://horizonsproject.us/us-lawyers-use-litigation-against-assaults-on-democracy/
ACADEMIC RESEARCH
My dissertation considered how policies, practices, and narratives of citizenship are linked to cultural norms of belonging in the United States. I explored how adoption disrupts those norms, combining ethnography with social movement theory to center the perspectives of transnationally adopted persons.
My research also examined the ways that digital technologies offer spaces for diasporas to connect and form meaningful communities.
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“Adoption” in The Handbook of Religion and American Culture, edited by Chad Seales (Routledge, author withdrawn).
“Invisible, Til We’re Not” with Aixin Aydin for Religiology.
“Commemorating and Teaching about Sept. 11 in Texas Public Schools” religious and cultural literacy curriculum for the Institute for Diversity and Civic Life.
“Workplace Mosaics: A Guide to Cultural Observances” for the Institute for Diversity and Civic Lie.
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“‘What was I Made For?’: Transnational Adoption, the Going Home Barbie, and Manifest Domesticity” in the LGBTQIA+ Special Forum session at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, Texas (November 18-21, 2023).
“Gathering, Spinning, Weaving: Negotiating Entangled Ethnographic Relationships and Commitments” a roundtable session of the Anthropology of Religion Unit at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, Texas (November 18-21, 2023).
“When You’re Here, You’re Family: On Transnational Adoption, Religion, and Nation-Building in the U.S.” at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian American Studies, (April 6-8, 2023).
“To Be Longing for Belonging” at the Mirrors & Windows public forum for transnationally adopted persons hosted by BIPOC Adoptees (March 25, 2023).
“Leave No Child Behind: On Transnational Adoption, Religion, and Nation Building in America” at the 7th Biennial Conference on Religion and American Culture, (June 2-4, 2022).
“Welcome to the Club! Using the Clubhouse Platform for Netnography” in Innovating Research with Digital Methods, a roundtable session at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, (November 19-23, 2021).
“Here and In-Between: Race, Religion, & Adoption” at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion—Western Region, (March 19-21, 2021).