I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability and affiliate faculty in Film and Media Studies at the University of Oklahoma. My scholarship focuses on two areas currently: 1) how geopolitics and spatial identities are shaped and contested through media, popular culture (specifically humor), and communication technologies and 2) a more recent interest in communicating about natural hazards, in particular how geographies of journalism can help broadcast meteorologists establish trust with audiences during severe weather outbreaks. 

Across my research, my students and I explore the spatial politics of information and representation—how digital networks, communication infrastructures, and cultural texts (including humor and broadcast media) circulate ideas about power, security, and identity, and how those ideas become “common sense” in everyday life.

At the University of Oklahoma, I teach a range of geography courses, including introductory human geography, upper-division political geography, and a seminar on geopolitics, environmental discourses and popular culture. My teaching and service have been recognized by the National Council for Geographic Education, the Oklahoma Council for Social Studies and by several units at the University of Oklahoma.