As a scholar, my thinking is guided by a strong commitment to advancing the intersectional and interdisciplinary study of race, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, and culture through research, teaching, and service with areas of research specialization including black feminisms and global black sexualities along with sex work, critical trafficking studies and carceral studies. While my first book examined how the sexual policing of Black women sex workers was foundational to the city of San Diego’s development as a center of tourism and the military, my current project takes a more global and transhistorical approach by examining how heritage tourism in Brazil engenders new sex economies and forms of relationality in the African Diaspora. My work has been supported by the University of Missouri Research Board, Institute for Citizens and Scholars (formerly the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation), and US Fulbright Scholars Program. I lead the research subcommittee for the State of Missouri's Task for Missing Murdered African-American Women and Girls. I also serve on the editorial board for African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal.