Overview
My interests span archaeology, art history, and museum studies–the material culture of the past and its reception over time. As a teacher, I have worked as a museum educator, a middle school history teacher, and a lab instructor on an archaeological site, as well as in traditional college classrooms. I love opportunities to bring object-based forms of inquiry to a broad range of topics. As curator of the anthropology collections, I am interested in sharing the breadth of material culture across time and geography with students and providing opportunities for them to critically engage with institutional collecting practices in the past and present.
Research Focus
My research on the area of the ancient Roman world has focused on relationships between humans and the natural world as expressed through art and architecture, especially where they are most visible at well-preserved sites surrounding the Bay of Naples in Italy. I have worked since 2011 at the Gabii Project, an excavation and field school near Rome, as a member of the finds lab.
Issues in cultural heritage are central to my work. I am a member of the advisory council of the Mediterranean Antiquities Provenance Research Alliance, a nonprofit organization geared towards equipping students with the skills and tools to conduct provenance research on the often poorly documented artifacts in university collections. I am interested in forged and fake antiquities, especially small, portable artifacts like ceramic Roman lamps, and what they reveal about the values of collectors who drive these markets.