on the web:
First smitten with the field of anthropology upon learning about bonobos (a breed of chimpanzee that literally makes love not war), I have found myself drawn toward theories of neotribalism, liminality/communitas, and proxemics (the study of the distance people feel is necessary to put between themselves and others). I am in my first year of a Ph.D program in Communication at the University of California, San Diego, devising a multi-sited ethnography of alternative, sustainable communities around the world and the possibilities of social media technology for cultivating a global network and enhancing civic participation, community bonding, and cultural production on the local level.
For my masters in Anthropology at Wesleyan University, I conducted ethnographic research on the online social networking sites MySpace, Facebook, and Tribe.net. My virtual ethnography can be viewed or downloaded at The Virtual Campfire. I have also written about neotribalism and psytrance on Tribe.net, as well as commemoration and memorialization of the dead on online social networking sites. I am interested in exploring new ways of writing and conducting ethnography at the dawn of the cyberculture, and encourage those interested and engaged in this field to contribute to Webnographers Wiki, a compendium of resources pertaining to the field of virtual ethnography.As a research assistant for the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society, I've worked on two projects: with danah boyd, I'm finishing an interdisciplinary literature review on the issue of pro-self harm websites [eg; pro-eating disorder, pro-cutting, pro-suicide]; briefly, I was also helping out with the Media Cloud project, a large-scale effort to organize the worldwide flow of news online and track the circulation of memes. Currently, I am assisting Howard Rheingold in his research on 21st century literacies, specifically focusing on techniques for 'crap detection' of online information.
In my free time, I enjoy writing poetry, dancing, coffee-fueled conversation, creating ambience and cozy spaces, wandering aimlessly, and finding inspiration in the minutia of everyday life.