About

What I’ve been up to lately:

2011 – Present
Design research & concept development intern at Swedish strategic media agency, Good Old. Using ethnographic research and cultural theory to build insights that drive innovative design concepts.

2010-2012
Lund University and the University of Copenhagen, pursuing a Master of Applied Cultural Analysis. Think ‘user’ research, grounded in socio-cultural theory and ethnographic methodologies. By creating a dialog between “consumers” and “producers” (terms that really oversimplify the complexity of market relationships), I hope to positively shape the design of products and services in a way that makes life more fun, fulfilling, sustainable and democratic — all of which I believe can add value to a brand, a product, a service, and society as whole. Sound idealistic? It never hurts to try.

2008-2010 
Seoul, Korea, teaching in the public school system. You’ll find many photos here from my adventures in this sprawling, crazy city. I loved it there (except when I hated it). No regrets, many great memories.

2005-2008 
UCLA, B.A. Global Studies. My thesis critically evaluated macro and micro theories and accounts of new information and communications technologies’ (ICTs) roles in societal change (i.e. ‘network society,’ ‘post-industrial society,’ ‘information society’), situated within a discussion of the modern history of neo-liberal globalization and diverse alter-globalism movements.

In other words, I wanted to write positively, but critically, about the potential for new, more egalitarian and sustainable forms of social organization, without ignoring the ways in which technology can and does find itself in service of less humanitarian goals, and often appears to simply extend and enhance the logic of extreme capitalism. A holistic understanding is the only way to really make progress and avoid duping ourselves with slogans of revolution.