Hi! I am a sociocultural anthropologist and postdoctoral researcher at Durham University (UK) whose research deals with material heritage, exile and absence, legacies of imperialism and colonial rule, and collective memory in the Eastern Mediterranean. My current book project, culled from over two years of ethnographic fieldwork, addresses the absence of, and collective memory about, Lebanon's Jewish community and their spaces “post”-Civil War (1975-90). Broadly, I am interested in questions of nationalist narratives and belonging, space/place, and "otherness" in the body politic, particularly in the Middle East. I received my PhD from UCLA in Anthropology (2023); MA from New York University in Near Eastern Studies (2014); and my BA from Smith College in Religion (2012). 

Beyond the academy, I contribute to cultural outlets and travel platforms in ways that challenge typical narratives of tourism and consumption by engaging with the complexities of places and people, demonstrating through storytelling that the cultural is always and inextricably political. I write to reveal both a common humanity and to analyze the power dynamics of interpersonal encounters by, as the anthropological adage goes, making the strange familiar and the familiar strange.

Other things that strike my fancy include my cats, growing edible and medicinal plants in what little space urban dwelling allows, painting, maintaining a relentless optimism that a better world is collectively possible, and being kind of obsessed with skincare. I am currently based in Cambridge, UK.