I am a cultural sociologist in New York University’s sociology department. My research asks: How do people produce culture? And how do some cultural innovations achieve a revered or canonized status?My work on how people produce culture together has been published in Social Psychology Quarterly My work on culture and canonization has been published in Poetics.I teach sociology while providing students with opportunities to develop richer understandings of their everyday lives and stronger visions of their professional futures. I believe sociological thinking is empowering. In my classrooms, I demonstrate how sociological insights shed light on students’ everyday circumstances and can help them better understand the invisible hurdles standing in the way of their professional goals.