New Hildebrand Fellow, Caylee Hong, studies how oil well bankruptcies shape cities

April 12, 2021

Canadian Studies is pleased to introduce Caylee Hong, the latest recipient of an Edward Hildebrand Research Fellowship. Caylee is a Ph.D. student in sociocultural anthropology with an emphasis on legal issues.

Caylee's research examines the impacts of finance, including debt and bankruptcy, on infrastructure development and decommissioning. Her Hildebrand Fellowship will provide funding for her dissertation project, exploring how corporate bankruptcy law shapes oil and gas-producing cities. In particular, she examines the responses by diverse urban stakeholders to “orphan” oil and gas wells in California and Alberta, Canada - namely, wells that lack a known or solvent owner/operator.

Caylee received a bachelor's in common law from McGill University and a master's in law from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. She also holds a B.A. in interdisciplinary studies from the University College Utrecht. Prior to Berkeley, Caylee clerked at the Federal Court of Canada and worked as a project finance attorney in New York City.