Bio

I am a sociologist of culture and cognition. My work explores the effects of experience on perception and the body’s role in meaning making and response. In particular, I am interested in how these processes are supported and shaped by the social category of gender. I have a background in psychology, and I bring research from psychology and cognitive science to bear on sociological issues pertaining both to theory broadly, and to culture specifically. 

Using a combination of in-depth interviews, ethnography, and a novel method designed to facilitate the description of music experience, my dissertation explores the roles that body and biography play in meaning making via three distinct projects. In the first, I examine the impact of various forms of embodied experience and aesthetic biography on the shaping and acquisition of a new music taste. In the second, I measure qualities of music encounters to explore gender differences in the description and experience of a particular subtype of sonic experience. In the third, I focus on funeral directors and examine how presently unfolding, large-scale changes in the occupation are allowing new, field-transforming meanings to emerge.