Specialization:
agrarian studies, food systems, Israel/Palestine, labor, Middle East and North Africa, political ecology, legal studies, settler colonialism
Education:
Ph.D, Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University, 2019.
M.A., Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University, 2015.
B.A., History, University of Southern California, 2007.
Bio:
I am an anthropologist who studies property, farming and food in the Middle East, primarily in Israel/Palestine. In my research, I explore how the experiences and perspectives of the people who work in the food system can advance our understanding of agrarian change and justice. Before arriving at UCSB, I held postdoctoral positions at Brown University, the University of Chicago, and Cornell University.
My first book Plots and Deeds: Agrarian Annihilation and the Fight for Land Justice in Palestine was published in 2026. It is based on archival research and fieldwork I carried out from 2013-2022 in the West Bank, Israel, and Jordan with support from the National Science Foundation, the Palestinian American Research Center, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. The book chronicles the destruction of agriculture in the West Bank, and shows how rural 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 uses drip irrigation to study the long Green Revolution across Israel/Palestine, Jordan, and the Gulf. 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.
Along with Jorge Ramirez-Lopez and Ricado Jacobs, I am part of the Agrarian and Indigenous Studies Research Group. We are a group of faculty in the Department of Global Studies committed to supporting undergraduate and graduate research in the fields of agrarian and indigenous studies. Our research covers the US/Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East and explores topics including borders, class, food systems, labor, migration, political ecology, race, rural/urban relations, social movements, techno-science and territory. We work within decolonial and Marxist traditions, and use historical (archival and oral histories), sociological, and ethnographic methods to understand the political horizons of contemporary agrarian and indigenous struggles. For current or prospective students interested in exploring agrarian and indigenous studies at UCSB, please check our course offerings and to get in touch with us with any questions.
Publications:
Book
Plots and Deeds: Agrarian Annihilation and the Fight for Land Justice in Palestine. Stanford University Press, 2026.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
“Post-Agrarian Land Defense: Rethinking Resistance from the Rural Margins of Palestine.” The Journal of Peasant Studies. Published online: 05 Mar 2026.
"Titling in the Ruins: Progress, Deferral, and Nonsovereign Property." Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 43.3 (2023): 262-274.
“Selling Rural Palestine: Land Devaluation, Ethical Investment, and the Limits of Human Rights.” Antipode 55.3 (2023): 897-915.
“To Cover the Land in Green: Rain-fed Agriculture and Anti-Colonial Land Reclamation in Palestine.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 50.7 (2023): 2666-2684.
“Palestinian Counter-forensics and the Cruel Paradox of Property.” American Ethnologist 49.3 (2022): 374-386.
“Owning the Homeland: Property, Markets, and Land Defense in the West Bank,” Journal of Palestine Studies 47.4 (2018): 30-45.
Courses:
GLOBL 2 Global Socioeconomic and Political Processes
GLOBL 130 Global Economy and Development
GLOBL 133 Property, Power, and the Ownership of Everything
GLOBL 137 Food and Justice