Greetings! I teach in the Department of Anthropology at SUNY-New Paltz. I received my PhD in anthropology from Emory University (Atlanta, GA) in 2007, my masters-of-health-science from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (Baltimore, MD) in 1994, and I have expertise in Latin American studies, political anthropology, gender studies, sexuality studies, and medical anthropology.  My primary research and writing projects are based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Porto Alegre, Brazil (2002-2003) and examine the formation of citizen identity in a city internationally known for its vibrant leftist political landscape and experiments in participatory democracy.  From this ongoing research, I have published a book chapter, have two manuscripts under review, and have presented more than 20 oral papers at major scholarly meetings.  Beyond my projects in Brazil, I also mentor student research on the 2007 U.S. Social Forum (a national social justice congress begun in 2007 which drew inspiration from the anti-neoliberal World Social Forum) and the 2008 World Social Forum, which was held online to experiment with new forms of digital activism.  In addition to these projects, I have written and published extensively on HIV/AIDS, drug use and risk-taking behavior.