He holds a PhD in Anthropology from Boston University (2000). He has conducted field research on biodiversity conservation, community-based development, and grassroots social movements in Tanzania, Pine Ridge, South Dakota, and New Orleans, Louisiana. His earlier work focused on conflicts between nature conservation and indigenous and local communities in diverse contexts. His more recent work concerns the ways in which spectacles of nature connect and disconnect peoples’ experiences of their place in the world at diverse and interconnected scales and locales. He is also involved with experimental collaborations dedicated to integrating theory building, applied practice, and public scholarship. His research and teaching specialties include globalization, biodiversity conservation, development, nature, value(s), spectacle, social movements, East Africa, and North America.