In my work, I use qualitative methods to examine how marginalized populations in urban locales make sense of inequalities in their everyday lives. I investigate how they interpret their social selves and order their relationships; how they create, maintain, and transform social and symbolic boundaries; and how boundaries constrain and enable their lives. I received my B.A from Ithaca College, and graduate degrees from The University of Wisconsin-Madison. My research covers race and ethnicity, cultural sociology, sociological theory, and urban sociology. I am also particularly interested in understanding the experiences of Black lives.  My interest in the cultural dynamics of Black life in urban settings is evident in my book manuscript, Break Beats in the Bronx, published by the University of North Carolina Press.  My dissertation, "Getting Something to Eat in Jackson," is an ethnography of everyday eating practices among socioeconomically diverse African Americans living in Jackson, Mississippi. It pays particular attention to food availability, choice, and consumption and how these are woven into the daily lives of people inhabiting different social classes.