I am a Ph.D. student in NYU's History Department. I specialize in the fields of United States History and the African Diaspora, with a particular focus on US-Latin American relations. I am currently writing my dissertation which examines the rise of US power in the aftermath of World War II through a study of the implementation of the international drug control apparatus, in particular, national and international efforts to control the coca leaf and commodities derived from it. This project brings together a number of political and intellectual concerns that have shaped my academic career. In particular I have been interested in studying the mechanisms through which power disparities - economic, racial, national, and gender disparities - were structured into the rise and expansion of US capitalism in the 20th century. My work seeks to study the history of the United States by situating national discourses, cultural understandings and political economy firmly within the larger world they have always been part of and dependent upon for raw materials, land, labor, and in more recent history, consumer markets.
I was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and grew up in Canada, England and the United States. I studied at McGill University and New York University as an undergraduate. I received an MA in History from the University of Toronto before returning to NYU as a doctoral student.