I am a Professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. As a human geographer, I am primarily focused on development and socio-environmental change in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Development geography examines the various socio-economic activities that impact people’s livelihoods and well-being. I engage with these topics by analyzing tourism, labor, and agricultural geographies.

I explore socio-environmental change through a political ecology lens to address the political and economic drivers of environmental degradation.

Collectively, my work asks, how is everyday experience mediated by broader, often transnational processes, and with what social and environmental implications? I seek answers to this question through ethnographic fieldwork and in popular culture and other textual representations, as well as collaboratively with geospatial scientists.

When I'm not writing about the environment and development, you can find me surfing at Diamond Head, hiking the Kalalau Trail, or enjoying spicy poke bowls at Kaimana Beach.