|
Mailing Address |
Born and raised in Marin County, California, I moved to Denver in 2008. My mom is from Chicago with roots in German/Irish culture and my father is from the Sierra region in Ecuador. I’m a first-generation college graduate. In 1991-1993, I lived and studied in Nigeria where I received a master’s degree in political science from the University of Ibadan. To continue my global education, I earned a master’s degree with a specialization in labor and employment studies at the Institute for Social Studies in Den Haag, The Netherlands in 1995. For my doctoral work in anthropology at the University of California, Irvine I focused on the livelihoods of tobacco farmers and farm workers, labor union struggles and corporate accountability issues in Malawi’s tobacco growing sector. I am an Associate Professor in the Anthropology Department, University of Colorado Denver.
Recent publications include the co-authored manuscript “Humanizing drug overdoses in Colorado: A liberatory harm reduction comic made with sex workers and people who use drugs” (Journal of American Folklore 2025) and the co-edited books Exploring Digital Ethnography: From Principles to Practice (Routledge 2025).
In 2024, my colleague Dr. Aaraón Díaz Mendiburo, Centro de Investigaciones sobre América del Norte (CISAN), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and I published the co-edited collection of four books Breaking Stigmas: Art and Cannabis in North America.
- Volume 1. Activisms
- Volume 2. Public Space and Private Spaces
- Volume 3. Audiovisuals: Films, Television, Images and Photographs
- Volume 4. Narratives and Music
In 2025-26, student research assistants and I are analyzing data, writing up findings and completing a repository of video interviews with study participants in the project "Psilocybin Use Among BIPOC Community Members in Colorado" (COMIRB #22-1797). 100 recorded interviews (96 video and 4 audio) were completed in 2023-24 with people of color and low-income individuals about their experiences and concerns related to psilcobyin ("magic mushrooms") use and legalization in Colorado. Additional details are on the project web page.
Also, in 2025-26 I am analyzing 76 short videos about opioid overdose reversals and naloxone to promote overdose prevention and stigma reduction related to drug users in Denver, Fort Collins, Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction, Alamosa and Pueblo. Funds for the project received from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ‘Overdose Data to Action’ grant. For additional details visit the project webpage Naloxone Champions.
Through a Community Grant Program Award from the Source Research Foundation in 2024, I organized Perspectives in Psychedelics: BIPOC Speaker Series with 10 indigenous and people of color in Colorado focused on decolonizing psychedelics, indigenous rights, structural racism, white supremacy, medicalization and corporations. The community partner is BIPOC Psychedelic. The presentation transcripts in the speaker series are being turned into a book that I am editing with the presenters of the speaker series being chapter contributors. The tentative title is Honoring Master Plants: Ancestral Worldviews and New Perspectives on “Psychedelics.” Additional details are here.
In 2024, the US Fulbright Specialist Program accepted me on its roster of specialists (a three year position). In 2025-26, I plan to conduct with local partners six weeks of fieldwork on a project about youth leadership development, cultural heritage, and language preservation among tribal communities in Purulia, West Bengal State, India. Partners include the Department of Anthropology and Tribal Studies in Sidho Kanho Birsha University in Purulia, and the Centre for Public Health Research, Manbhum Ananda Ashram Nityananda Trust (MANT), West Bengal. In 2024, MANT designated me as a Senior Fellow.
I am a producer at Denver Community Media, running the web-based television program called Getting High on Anthropology. This show is designed to create a platform for community members doing innovative work in cannabis, psilocybin and other areas to share stories and lived experiences using 21st century technologies.
My free time is spent with my wife Michelle and two boys (ages 20 and 18). Hobbies include bicycling, hiking, traveling, doing jigsaw puzzles and making videos.