bio

As an environmental sociologist trained in political-economy and global social change, I conduct theoretically derived research on society / nature relationships.  I use formal comparative methods to examine how forms of world economic integration and world society integration contribute to environmental change and human well being at different scales.  In this work I also consider the structural and institutional conditions of societies as well as how ecological milieu partially condition society / nature relationships.  The majority of my research is cross-national in scope, and quantitative by design.  

I received my PhD in sociology from the University of California, Riverside in 2004.  As a graduate student I had the privilege to work for and be mentored by Christopher Chase-Dunn, who is a world renowned macrosociologist as well as the founder and director of the Institute for Research on World-Systems and the founding editor of the Journal of World-Systems Research.  I was also fortunate to be mentored by Jonathan Turner, Robert Hanneman, and Linda Stearns at UC Riverside as well as Jeffrey Kentor and Tom Burns while working towards my BS in sociology at the University of Utah.  In fall of 2004 I began my academic career as a tenure-track assistant professor in the department of sociology at Washington State University.  In fall of 2007 I joined the department of sociology and anthropology at North Carolina State University, where—besides conducting research and mentoring wonderful graduate students—I teach undergraduate courses and graduate seminars in environmental sociology, international political-economy, and quantitative research methods.  In October of 2007 I became the new co-editor of the Journal of World-Systems Research, which is now the official journal of the Political Economy of the World-System section of the American Sociological Association.

Besides a great deal of domestic travel, in recent years my research has taken me to Sweden, Brazil, Denmark, South Africa, Lesotho, Lithuania, Canada, and Spain.

My wife and I live in Cary, North Carolina with our son who joined us on April 17, 2008.  We enjoy traveling to distant places, camping in the hinterlands and coastal areas, listening to music, watching independent films, and consuming vegan cuisine along the way.