I am an Associate Professor of Political Science and affiliated faculty in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Fordham University. My research and teaching interests are informed by feminist and queer theory and located at the intersection of critical scholarship on gender and sexuality, citizenship and belonging, and democratic backsliding. I am particularly interested in the role of extreme right and Christian nationalism on global gender politics and the erosion of democracy.
My first book, Terms of Exclusion: Rightful Citizenship Claims and the Construction of LGBT Political Identity (Oxford University Press), received the 2023 American Political Science Association Best Book on LGBTQ Politics Award. It is available for purchase at OUP and on Amazon.
I am currently working on my next book project, which examines the politicization of prescription hormones in the US across five cases: hormone-augmented beef and dairy production, social media carnivore influencers, anti-trans healthcare bans, reproductive technologies, and the weight-loss drug Ozempic. Using Foucault's biopolitics as an analytic frame, I argue that the strict regulation (or lack thereof) of hormones in these five cases reveals how gendered, raced, and classed hierarchies of membership are shaped. These variations in political, social, and economic membership therefore function as indicators of who is considered a “good” citizen and who is conversely excluded from political, social, and economic worlds.
In addition to research, I am engaged in several service activities that draw on their academic expertise in LGBTQ politics, including regular analysis for Good Authority. I currently serve as an Editorial Board member for the European Journal on Politics and Gender and previously served as Social Media Editor for Politics, Groups, and Identities.
My passion is identifying ways to share research with people outside academia. You can find my publications that translate research for the public in Slate,Teen Vogue, andWashington Post.
I am available for commentary on the politics of sexuality, gender, and race; transgender politics; democratic backsliding; the far right; intersectionality and critical race theory; and political movements.