Aaron is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology. His dissertation traces how experimental design movements—calling for the participation of elderly, rural, Indigenous, and otherwise marginalized communities in the making of new technologies—are transforming fields as far-flung as healthcare, environmental remediation, and Indigenous politics across Taiwan and China. With the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, he will investigate how feminist Indigenous leaders in Taiwan are questioning the liberatory potential of these state-backed inclusive movements.
His research has been supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Fulbright-Hays Program, the Association for Asian Studies/Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, and the American Ethnological Society among others. Prior to his doctoral work, Aaron earned a BA in Anthropology from Columbia University, for which he conducted an ethnographic project in Shanghai.