Year Entered Program
2012
Biography
I am a 5th year PhD student at CU Boulder. My dissertation research is a multi-year ethnography of the Denver heavy music scene. In it I examine how musicians and music fans engage with cultural artifacts in the context of collective rituals, the identity work necessary to establish legitimacy in the scene, how these individuals transition from one music world to another in conjunction with other changes in their lives, and how the history of Denver's music and art districts intersect with economic changes in the city to (re)shape the music scene(s) and the physical spaces they inhabit.
I have taught a number of courses, including The Self in Modern Society, Social Problems, Deviance in US Society, and Introduction to Sociology. I strive to create courses that allow students to see how their lives intersect with larger structural realities in ways that empower them to think critically and practice sociological mindfulness.