Recent research projects include:

An ethnography of 1080 pest control and the politics of the Anthropocene in Aotearoa
A uniquely controversial poison, 1080 serves as a lightning rod for broader concerns – about who gets to make environmental decisions, about toxicity and environmental risk, and about which species and people belong in Aotearoa. Using ethnographic methods, this research will explore how conservation workers, iwi, pest controllers, land owners, land users, activists, and scientists understand 1080’s use, significance, and shortcomings. In doing so, it offers the first empirical evidence base about the social life of 1080, as well as intellectual insights into how collective pasts and futures are made in a time of profound environmental change.

Pharmaceutical pathways
This HRC-funded research with Denise Taylor (Faculty of Health) explores the information pathways between doctors, pharmacists and patients. We want to understand how information about medicines travels through general practice and pharmacy settings and into patients' lives, and how it is taken up, interpreted and put to use by patients.

Understanding communications about Covid-19
This MBIE-funded project (with Dr Jane Horan, A/Prof Rebecca Priestley, Dr Alex Beattie, Dr Sarah-Jane O'Connor, and from UoA Drs Lara Graves and Heather Battles) explores where residents of Aotearoa found information about Covid-19 and interpreted that. We are using semi-structured, distance interviews with 110 residents, exploring their experiences of navigating the information landscape around Covid-19.

The ethics of experiment: An ethnography of human gene therapy
My doctoral research was an ethnographic study of gene therapy clinical trials in Europe. This work explored how the practice of gene therapy took shape in a context overdetermined by ethical concerns and used the anthropology of ethics to critique research ethics systems.