Background

My research interests stem from the struggle to understand the material environment as a social process.  For me, this has entailed the investigation of innovation in the suburban development process in the United States, but more recently incorporates a concern with the environmental impact of various forms of development and their particular cultural resonance.  I work to produce portraits of the processes that interest me in a way that balances diverse data, from statistics, to interviews, to ethnographic observation.

My teaching interests are broader and include questions about the social construction of gender and race, the continuing relevance of concepts of class in the United States, the sociological analysis of the city, and the relevance of fiction for social science.  I am committed to a vision of sociology as the science of the everyday, encouraging us to question all our underlying assumptions, come to new and newly informed conclusions, and embrace uncertainty.

Selected Publications

Forthcoming	“Doing Suburban Development:  The Rise of the New Urbanism in the Post-postwar Suburban Landscape”
Works in Progress	Green Building vs. Gentrification:  Environmental Impact and Cultural Valence