In my research, I am interested in connecting long-term historical processes and individual life experience to explain the evolution of social norms and governance structures.

From February 1995 through October 1996, I conducted field research on the Masoala Peninsula of Madagascar. This research was funded by IIE/Fulbright, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and the National Science Foundation. The particular villages where I worked have provided me the opportunity to examine such issues as

• the implications of the legacy of slavery for the formation of social cohesion
• the regulation of property rights
• the role that food and work taboos play in creating individual and collective identity
• the relationship between ancestral authority and Western religion
• the local response, both historically and presently, to national and international attempts to preserve the region's rain forests.

I am currently writing my doctoral dissertation in which I bring these topics together in an attempt to explain the nature of local governance in the villages where I worked and to understand what general processes contribute to their particular form.

In June, I presented a paper ("Changing Social Norms in a Frontier Community") at the Law and Society Association annual meeting. I will be giving a paper ("Unity in Diversity: Toleration of Difference in a Malagasy Frontier Community") at the upcoming American Anthropological Association meetings in December in Philadelphia.