I work on the history, politics and culture of arctic natural gas development, and particularly of Alaska and Western Canada. I received my PhD from UC Berkeley in 2004, and am completing my first book, Arctic Moderns and the Import of Expertise for Cornell University Press which is a study of energy market restructuring and the politics of Alaskan-Western Canadian natural gas pipeline development. I am currently working on energy forecasting and how images of the energy future have impacted energy policy and planning since the early 1970s. In this work, I also focus on the activities of experts, a theme that I am developing in various projects on the politics and culture of consultant forecasting. I have held the positions of lecturer at UC Berkeley’s Energy Resources Group and Fulbright Scholar, North American Research Chair at University of Calgary, where I continue to hold a Research Associate position at the Arctic Institute of North America. At Arizona State University I am founder and Director of StudioPolar, Assistant Professor in the School of Justice and Social Inquiry, Co-Chair of the Energy, Society and Policy Initiative, and faculty affiliate with the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes. I am also the Social Science Coordinator for the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS). My ethnographic experience includes various politically appointed State of Alaska positions including Associate Director of Energy under Alaska governor Frank Murkowski and Energy Coordinator under Alaska governor Tony Knowles. I am also involved in long-term ethnographic research at various urban and village sites in Alaska and Alberta.
Representative Publications
“The Rise of Consultant Forecasting in Liberalized Natural Gas Markets,” Public Culture (2007);
“Images of the Energy Future,” Environmental Research Letters (2006);
“Registering Discontinuity in Energy Market Analysis,” Knowledge, Technology and Policy (2005);
“The Condition of Market Formation on Alaska’s Natural Gas Frontier,” Focaal: European Journal of Anthropology (2004);
“The Rise of an Alaska Native Bourgeoisie,” Inuit Studies (2002)