I am an attorney with a background in financial crime, compliance, human trafficking, and asylum. After years of working in the human rights and finance sectors, I decided to return for a PhD in Applied Anthropology to turn my focus on the changing face of work and what opportunities remote work acceptance, drastically escalated by the Covid-19 pandemic, might provide for employers as well as local and national economic development.

My work centers around: Digital nomadism, Remote work, Full-time travel and motherhood, Mobility, Value, Legal implications of digital nomadism, Gig and informal economy – particularly among women and mothers, and Economic diversification/revitalization

With the expansion of digital workspaces and their acceptance, questions uniquely positioned for anthropological inquiry and application emerge. The mobile nature of digital and virtual employment opens new veins of economic and community development not previously available for rural and/or single-industry dependent regions seeking to explore new models for growth. With these economic and legal opportunities arise questions of community and mothering, both in geographically static and mobile settings. I am interested in the combination of work and travel, particularly among those who have found a way to intertwine the two on a full-time basis. I find the emergence of the digital nomad visa programs around the world, particularly in countries plagued by a lack of tourism revenue as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, fascinating and am interested in the legal, social, and economic implications of these laws. 

To be presented at the 2023 American Anthropological Association Conference in Toronto. As an increasing number of employers and employees turn to remote work as a sustainable model following the forced virtual experiments of the Covid-19 pandemic; opportunities emerge for individuals, families, communities, and employers to challenge existing expectations of what it means to be an employee, to climb the corporate ladder, and to pursue the 'American Dream.' The study of digital nomadism offers a novel perspective into emerging online and in-person worlds. Understanding why digital nomads chose to embark on the geographically impermanent life they lead is relevant to economic and social questions of value and how society measures success. Corporate denial of the demand for workplace flexibility has repeatedly, and often very publicly, proven detrimental to both employee morale and the corporate bottom-line. Around the globe, the list of nations offering a 'digital nomad visa' grows as countries look to capitalize on the social and economic benefits they envision in a transient, fully employed labor force interested in investing financially and emotionally in their temporary community and schools, but not seeking citizenship or the legal and social protections such status affords. Beyond the visa, cities in the United States and beyond are working to enhance their digital nomad attractiveness through incentive programs, partnerships with private companies such as WeWork and Airbnb, and sophisticated ad campaigns capitalizing on what makes their city a unique and exciting place to live, work, and spend money. The study of digital nomadism further blurs the boundaries that define community, virtual space, and multi-sited ethnography.