I am a historian of environmental and evolutionary sciences, with a particular focus on how paleontology intersects with politics, culture, and society.
I am currently a Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley. I received my PhD in the Committee on the Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science at the University of Chicago.
My scholarship examines the history of paleontology, the study of past life on earth. I am particularly interested in how fossils have been valued, circulated, and contested across different historical contexts. Should fossils be legislated as cultural heritage? Who has the right to collect, study, and own fossils?
My current book project explores the growth of commercial paleontology, or the global fossil trade, and its divergence from institutional, academic paleontology. Situating the emergence of the contemporary fossil market within broader histories of nationalism, empire, and capitalism, I show that the fossil trade has historically engendered scientific research. I am also working on a history of fake fossils, which have existed for centuries and proliferated alongside the growth of the fossil industry.