I am currently a PhD candidate in Sociology at the Johns Hopkins University. I received my BA in Political Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

My current work draws on political, development, and comparative-historical sociology to focus on land, labor, institutional change, and spatial inequality. I analyze long-term structural change through a meso-level attention to institutions and a micro-level investigation of social interaction among the state, capital, and peasantry.

My book project examines the historical origins, diverse local trajectories, and contrasting socioeconomic impacts of the Chinese state’s “land transfer” reform, which involves converting land into a rentable commodity and concentrating land for large-scale commercial agriculture.

My recent works have appeared in the Journal of Peasant Studies and Development and Change.