I am an anthropologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Since 2013, I’ve done research on property, farming and food in the Middle East, primarily in Israel/Palestine. I use historical and ethnographic methods to study the lives of peasant farmers, laborers and others who work on the land and in the wider food system. My writing explores the ways that their struggles, experiences, and perspectives enrich our understanding of sovereignty and justice.
My first book Plots and Deeds: Agrarian Annihilation and the Fight for Land Justice in Palestine was published in 2026 with Stanford University Press. It is based on archival research and fieldwork in the West Bank, Israel, and Jordan I did from 2013-2022. It chronicles the destruction of agriculture in the central highlands of Palestine, and shows how Palestinians have turned to property ownership and peasant farming to defend and return to their land. Through close attention to the material conditions of the people who live in the central highlands, Plots and Deeds connects Palestinian land defense to a global struggle for land justice.
I am currently at work on two projects. The first focuses on technology and traces drip irrigation from Israel/Palestine to the Gulf, East Africa, and the United States. The second focuses on labor and the people who work, not only on the farms, but also in the factories, trucks, and markets that constitute Palestine’s food systems.
I earned my PhD in anthropology from the Johns Hopkins University in 2019. Before coming to UCSB, I held positions at Brown University, the University of Chicago, and Cornell University. I have also worked with the Stop the Wall Campaign and the Land Defense Coalition in the West Bank.