Welcome, and thanks for tuning in! I am an assistant sociology professor at the University of California - Los Angeles (Go Bruins!).

As a researcher, my interest lies in understanding how marginalized groups experience, navigate, and respond to social control institutions. Of particular interest is the U.S. criminal legal system, with my current project examining how commercial bail entangles families in a complicated economic and social system of obligation, debt, and punishment.

I am an NSF, MFP, and NICHD fellow (National Science Foundation, Minority Fellowship Program, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, respectively), and my research has been supported by the Russell Sage Foundation, the American Society of Criminology, and the American Association of University Women.

My approach to sociological research and teaching is rooted in the conviction that our lived experience(s) can be a vehicle for producing, or touchstone for understanding, knowledge and converting it into practice. Whether carrying out interviews, analyzing survey responses, or teaching behind bars or on campuses, I seek out and encourage a dialectic between different ways of knowing.