I explore how people negotiate work, relationships, institutions, and survival when the stakes are unequal — and what it takes to reclaim voice, dignity, and agency without losing our humanity.

What I’m interested in

I write and speak about in the invisible agreements we enter every day — the unspoken social contracts that tell us when to speak, when to stay silent, when to comply, and when resistance feels too costly.

These contracts govern workplaces, families, marriages, classrooms, institutions. They aren’t written, but we all know them. They decide who gets to say no, who is believed when they speak up, and who pays the price for refusing to comply.

I write about how these contracts are negotiated — and how that negotiation depends almost entirely on power dynamics.

Power, privilege, and compliance

Power and privilege are not the same. Power belongs to the gatekeepers: the boss, the decision-maker, the person whose approval controls access, safety, or opportunity. Privilege determines whether you can challenge that power without losing everything.

Some people can push back. Some can walk away. Some are believed. Others — especially those living with poverty, stigma, trauma, or without safety nets — are not.

When the cost of saying no is losing your job, your housing, your reputation, or your future, compliance isn’t weakness. It’s survival.

My work examines what happens at that intersection — when people in power use persuasion ethically, to teach or mentor, and when they use it exploitatively, to pressure, manipulate, silence, or control. And how the people with the least protection are always the most vulnerable to harm.

The questions I keep asking

Who gets to say no — and who is punished for it?

Who is expected to stay silent to keep the peace, the job, the marriage, the reputation?

Who is believed when they speak up — and who is dismissed as difficult, unstable, or ungrateful?

How does poverty, stigma, or a lack of safety nets collapse people’s ability to negotiate these contracts at all?

And how do we dismantle these dynamics without hardening ourselves or losing compassion?

These aren’t abstract questions for me. They’re the through-line of my life and my work.