About

I am broadly trained as a cultural anthropologist with a specialization in psychological and medical anthropology.

I primarily focus on individual experiences of mental and emotional health precipitated by participation in global migration processes. While I give primacy to the singularity of each narrative, I also maintain engagements with long-established anthropological attunements to local and global prescripts of illness, gender, spirituality, politics, human rights, and domestic labor exchange.

I completed a Masters in Medical Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Practices at Boston University in 2014. It was my work in Boston that encouraged me to continue engaging with anthropological conversations regarding suicide and mental unwellness, particularly within minority communities.

In September 2021, I completed my Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles under the guidance of Dr. Douglas Hollan and Dr. C. Jason Throop. My dissertation research took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and examined why young Ethiopian women migrate to the Gulf countries for domestic work and how they understand and experience their subsequent emotional and mental health.

Since 2022, I have served as a Lecturer at UCLA in the Department of Anthropology, and as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Macalester College.