ABOUT

I am a PhD candidate in the History of Art + Architecture (secondary field in American Studies) where my research focuses on intersections between the history of craft and design, Indigenous Studies, and American imperialism. Broadly, I am interested in craft as a mobile form of knowledge. How do the circulations of materials, forms, styles, and techniques relate to other forms of travel and circulation, whether physical, temporal, conceptual, etc? Other topics of interest include intermediality, the visual history of the natural and social sciences, local and regional craft traditions, textiles, and intellectual property.

My dissertation-in-progress examines Native American craft and design projects developed during the 1930s, a period marked by the seeming reversal of assimilationist Indian policy and the search for an American "useable past." As non-Native anthropologists, legislators, and arts professionals sought to define and regulate concepts like "tradition" and "authenticity" in Native art--often for the consumption of outsiders--my dissertation returns focus to project participants and the long term effects of these projects within their respective communities. From a museum's attempt to "invent" a Hopi style to the interwar manufacture of a Seneca ethnographic collection to an Iñupiat sewing collective's lucrative military contract, I highlight how Indigenous artists continually roriented these projects to suit local social and political needs. This work has been supported by The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA), the Center for Craft, Crystal Bridges Museum, the University of Arkansas, The Decorative Arts Trust, the D'Arcy McNickle Center at the Newberry Library, the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard, among others.

Stemming from my interests in historical epistemologies and knowledge-production, I am particularly interested in critical examination of the institutions and structures guiding academic research. Some of my methods include working with descendant community members and living artists, organizing public programs, and collaborating with local institutions and community organizers in addition to other scholars. An interest in "the local" as an art historical analytic is one attempt to put some of these thoughts in print.

In Fall 2026, I will join the Society of Fellows at Princeton University.