Books
Beloved Technologies: On bombs and rats in a Cambodian minefield, part of The University of California Press’s competitive Atelier workshop series, investigates human and nonhuman relationships in a postwar ecology. Beloved Technologies is a grounded ethnographic book that considers the ways in which former enemies relate to each other, the landmines, and their landmine detection rats as they work together to clear the land from remnants of wars they themselves fought in the past.
Peer reviewed articles
(2021) “Minefield Montage” in Antennae: The journal of art and nature in volume 2 of the Special Issue on “Uncontainable Natures.” http://www.antennae.org.uk/
In “Minefield Montage” I discuss montage as a methodology for ethnographic research especially when it comes to engaging with nonhuman interlocutors like rats, bombs, and spirits. The collection contributes to theories of nature as a concept by drawing from genealogies in Southeast Asia.
(2021) “Resilient Relations: Rethinking truth, reconciliation, and justice in Cambodia” for The Journal of Global Buddhism in the Special Issue on “Resilience.” http://www.globalbuddhism.org/jgb/index.php/jgb/article/view/310
In “Resilient Relations” I write about ideas of distributed accountability in Cambodia and the ways in which former enemies mediate their violence pasts on the ground. These mediations follow lay practices of Buddhism and they undermine concepts of justice based on individual-oriented righteousness.
(2021) “Vector” as a Living Lexicon Entry in Environmental Humanities. https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/article/13/1/272/173447/Vector
In “Vector” I describe being a vector as a new way to think about being human as well as being related. In light of the pandemic, humans became vectors, unwitting carriers of a deadly disease. I integrate this with theories of relationality from Marilyn Strathern and Roberto Esposito’s immunitas. When people resist relationality, I connect this to fears of being a vector and being subject to vectors. This is due to be published in the May 2021 issue of Duke University Press’s Environmental Humanities.
(2019) “Negative Space: Imaginaries of violence in Cambodia” in Southeast of Now Special Issue on Reframing the Archive pp 47-66. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/737378
In “Negative Space,” I write about spirit tattoos I came across in Cambodia. These spirit tattoos protected former soldiers from explosives in a minefield but also rendered their skin as negative space. The ways these tattoos depicted violence helped me understand negative space as a way to both communicate and imagine violence.
(2018) “Demilitarizing disarmament with mine detection rats” in Culture and Organization Special Issue on The Animal. https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/BpNtjar33d5RkB5t4JqC/full
In “Demilitarizing Disarmament,” I write about how ratly attributes of landmine detection animals restructure the organizational ethos of mine action both in and beyond Cambodia.
Popular writing
(2021) “Peaceful minefields: Environmental protection or security risk” in New Security Beats: the blog of the Environmental Change and Security Program. https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2021/08/peaceful-minefields-environmental-protection-security-risks/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheNewSecurityBeat+%28New+Security+Beat%29
(2021) “The Walmart Parking Lot: How a symbol of capitalism became an oasis for RV and van dwellers” in Roadtrippers Magazine. https://roadtrippers.com/magazine/walmart-parking-lots-vanlife/
(2020) “Rats help clear minefields in Cambodia - and suspicion of the military” in The Conversation https://theconversation.com/rats-help-clear-minefields-in-cambodia-and-suspicion-of-the-military-148685?fbclid=IwAR3p8Anh8Mx2h_w483zyIGABQq87CCyeGzufse80C2BzXnzcWXO6pXAOgQY
(2020) “How rats are overturning decades of military norms” in SAPIENS https://www.sapiens.org/culture/land-mine-detection-rats/
In this SAPIENS article I present work from my newest research trip on how the rats are altering the militarism in landmine detection industries through their cuteness.
Technical writing
(2019) “Learning Modules: Touch, Sight, Hearing, Taste & Smell, and Orchestra of the Senses” for the Human+ Documentary series through Idéacom.
As a sensory ethnographer, I consulted as a content writer for the Human+ documentary series learning modules. The documentaries depict human sensoria and how technologies have altered them: https://humanplus.info/en/#Community