About Me

I never wanted to be an academic. Both my mother and sister are academics and, in our three-person household, I figured two out of three was plenty. Upon completing my BA at Vassar College, I moved to San Francisco instead. I soon began printing in a custom black-and-white lab, then went on to work in commercial and advertising photography for about 10 years. I became increasingly interested in not only how to make photographs, but how photographs worked to tell compelling (and often seductive) stories about objects and people. It was this central question-how images (or representations) tell stories, often about unknown or unknowable others-that led me back to school. I did my graduate work at the University of Texas at Austin, combining photography with cultural anthropology.

I am fascinated by the ways in which images and objects are deployed in representational spaces. While I pay particular attention to museums and cultural centers in Native America, I realize that casinos and other Native-owned resort spaces also represent Native America to a large, and largely non-Native, public audience. My doctoral research and book, Casino and Museum, focus on the relationships between the casino resort and the museum and research center of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation in Mashantucket, Conn. I have built on this research to explore questions of Native self-representation as a critical aspect of tribal sovereignty on a national level. More recent research and publications have focused on pedagogy, the role of service learning in higher education, and both the Museum of Sundry Objects and the National Museum in Iceland.

My other research and coursework explores family and kinship, public culture, museum studies, the anthropology of tourism, war and organized violence, and race and ethnicity. I am a Program Director for both GO Ísland/Iceland and GO Morocco; I also direct the Diversity Studies and Museum Studies programs (and serve as the faculty adviser for our Ultimate Frisbee team).

Professional Experience

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Social Anthropology, 2003, The University of Texas at Austin.

Dissertation title: The Museum and the Casino: Imagining the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation in Representational Space. Dissertation Committee Chair: Pauline Turner Strong.

M.A., Social Anthropology, 1995, The University of Texas at Austin.

Master’s Report: Fantastic Narrative, Material Strategy: Foxwoods Casino and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.

B.A., Anthropology/Sociology and English, 1981, Vassar College.

Thesis with honors: The Nez Percé: Narrative Fiction and Narrative Ethnography.

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

2017 (Fall): Fulbright–NSF Artic Research Scholar, the University of Iceland.

2003-PRESENT: Susquehanna University

2021-PRESENT: Professor of Anthropology

2015-PRESENT: Chair, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

2015-PRESENT: Director of Museum Studies

2009-2021: Associate Professor of Anthropology

2007-PRESENT: Director of Diversity Studies

2003-2009: Assistant Professor of Anthropology

CURRENT PROJECTS
Books: “No Two Identical Things,” book proposal (with Sigurjón Hafsteinsson) on the Museum of Sundry Objects. Revised proposal (per editorial review) submitted to Routledge Press July 2020.

Chapters: “Encased: Plotting Attentions through Distraction,” (with Melissa Biggs) for the edited (print) volume The Ethnographic Case, for Mattering Press, Anna Dowrick and Joe Deville, editors; projected publication date: Spring 2022.

“Terra Nullius: Accreting the Modern at the National Museum of Iceland,” submitted for consideration for the edited volume Museums, Narratives, and Critical Histories: Narrating the Past for Present and Future, for De Gruyter Press, Kerstin Barndt and Stephan Jaeger, editors. Submitted November 2021.

Articles: “Between Hell and Hot Water: Semi-Public Nudity as Betwixt and Between” submitted for review for Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences, March 2022.

Research projects: “The Stories of Sovereignties: Museums and ‘the National’ as Public Identity Narrative.” Fulbright–NSF Arctic Research Scholar, University of Iceland.

Publications
2022: “Being There: Abroad in the context of COVID-19,” part one in a four-part series in NAPA Notes, the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology, in press.

2021: “Selfies, Sovereignty, and the Nation-State: ‘Into the Modern World’ at the National Museum of Iceland,” in Mobility and Transnational Iceland: Current Transformations and Global Entanglements, Kristín Loftsdóttir and Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir, editors, University of Iceland Press.

2020: Lead editor: Study Abroad and the Quest for an Anti-Tourism Experience (with Dr. Michael Di Giovine), Lexington Books.

• “Weekending Daring: Manufacturing the ‘Discomfort Zone’ and Making the Study-Away Self.”

• “Preface: COVID-19 and the Shifting Ground of Study Abroad,” (with Dr. Michael Di Giovine).

• “Introduction: Asking Questions About Study Abroad and Tourism,” (with Dr. Michael Di Giovine).

• “Epilogue: Questioning the Future of Study Abroad in a Post-COVID-19 World,” (with Dr. Michael Di Giovine).

2020: “At Large in the Empire of Things: The Museum of Sundry Objects,” Museum and Society, 18(2).

2020: “Pursuing Major Passions: Innovative Minors with Assignments that Blend Professional Skills and Liberal Education Values for Civic Pursuits” (with Dr. Betsy Verhoeven), for the edited volume Redesigning Liberal Education, Rebecca Pope Ruark, editor, Johns Hopkins Press.

2018: “Dirty Work: The Carnival of Service,” (with Dr. Shari Jacobson) chapter in the edited volume The “Experience” of Neoliberal Education, for Berghahn Books, Bonnie Urciuoli, editor.

2018: Two images of Iceland as part of the collaborative Cities and Memory Sound Photography collaborative online project (http://citiesandmemory.com/sound-photography).

2017: “Encased: Plotting Attentions through Distraction,” (with Dr. Melissa Biggs) for the edited online volume The Ethnographic Case, for Mattering Press, Emily Yates-Doerr and Christine Labuski, editors: http://processing.matteringpress.org/.

2015: “Gambling on History: Shaping Narratives in Native Public Spaces,” (with Dr. Melissa Biggs) for proceedings for the Tenth Native American Symposium: “Native Ground: Protecting and Preserving History, Culture, and Customs.”

2015: “Encased: Plotting Attentions through Distraction,” (with Dr. Melissa Biggs) for the series The Ethnographic Case in the electronic, peer-reviewed journal Somatosphere.net.

2013: “Wag(er)ing Histories, Staking Territories: Exhibiting Sovereignty in Native America,” Museum and Society, 11(2).

2011: “Gaming and Self-Representation in Native America,” report for the Sycuan Institute on Tribal Gaming at San Diego State University (sdsu.edu/sycuan/reports.html).

2007: Casino and Museum: Representing Mashantucket Pequot Identity, The University of Arizona Press.

2005: “Casinos & Museums: Changing the Public Face of Native America,” cover article for Tribal Government Gaming, a yearly special edition of Global Gaming Business publications.

2003: “Imagining the Nation with House Odds: Representing American Indian Identity at Mashantucket,” Ethnohistory 50(3).

Awards and Recognitions
2017: Fulbright Teaching and Research Award, Fulbright–NSF Arctic Research Scholar, University of Iceland.

2015: The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Planning Grant, Wrote proposal for the establishment of the Museum Studies Program ($20,000) as an element of this successful grant request.

2009: Sycuan Institute on Tribal Gaming at San Diego State University, Research funding grant ($13,250) for “Gaming and Self-Representation—Post-IGRA Gains in Native America.”

2006–22: Susquehanna University, Eight Faculty Development and Research Grants.

Professional Service—Invited Peer Reviewer
2003–present: Peer reviewer for article and book manuscripts for: American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Cultural Anthropology, Oxford University Press, Museum Anthropology, the International Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, Culture and Psychology, Berghahn Books Press, and the University of Arizona Press.

Book reviewer for Museum Anthropology Review, American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Journal of Anthropological Research, Journeys: The International Journal of Travel and Travel Writing, Museum Anthropology, and Visual Anthropology Review.

2017: Editor: A Savant’s Guide to the Mythical Members of the Icelandic Phallogical Museum, by Þórður Ólafur Þórðarson for the Icelandic Institute of Phallology.

Invited Presentations
2017: Invited speaker: “The Stories of Sovereignties: Museums and ‘the National’ as Public Identity Narrative” for the Fulbright Commission Iceland, Reykjavík.

2017: Invited speaker: “Selfies, Sovereignty, and the Nation-State: ‘Into the Modern World’ at the National Museum of Iceland,” part of the series Mobilities and Transnational Iceland for the University of Iceland, Reykjavík.

2015: Invited speaker: “Vernacular Spaces, Museal Sensibilities,” for the Department of Anthropology at California State University Chico.

2014: Invited speaker: “Breaking Glass Boxes: Exhibiting Native America,” for the Thomas T. Taber Museum in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

2013: Invited panelist: “Tribal Gaming: Twenty-five Years of IGRA,” for the Fifteenth International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking.

2011: “Teaching Anthropology, and its Role in the Liberal Arts” presentation for Oxford College, Emory University.

2007: “Seeing Red: Photography, the American Indian Subject, and the Museum at Mashantucket” presentation for the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University, Bloomington.

2006: “Where is Now—When is Here? (Navigating time and space in Mashantucket),” presentation for the Department of History at the University of Delaware.

2006: “Turning Inside Outside: Locating the Place(s) of Exhibition,” presentation for the New York State Museum in Albany.

2006: “The Casino and the Museum: Locating Mashantucket Pequot Representations,” presentation for the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma.

2006: “Inside Outside: Exploring the Space/Place of Exhibition,” presentation for the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History.

2003: “Betting on Identity at Mashantucket: Representational Strategies for Tribal Museums and Casinos,” presentation for Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, as part of “DiversityFest III.”

2003: “Museums, Casinos, and Authenticity: Venues for Native American Self-Representation,” presentation for the University of Texas Anthropological Society and Lambda Alpha, the National Collegiate Honors Society for Anthropology, Austin, TX.

Chair, Organizer, or Discussant for Peer-Reviewed Conference Panels
2022: “Virtually Anywhere: Unsettling the Landscape of Study Abroad.” Chair for panel for the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association, under review.

2021: “Small Museums: Large Truths.” Chair for panel for the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association, panel sponsored by the Council for Museum Anthropology.

2021: “Truth and Responsibility in Study Abroad and Student Travel.” Organizer/discussant for panel for the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association, panel sponsored by the Council on Anthropology and Education.

2019: Chair: “Museums of the Vernacular as Porous Sites for Community Collaboration,” roundtable for the 2019 meetings of the Council for Museum Anthropology.

2017: Co-Organizer, Co-Chair: “Risk Exposure: Alterity, Germs, and Managed Danger” (with Shari Jacobson), panel for the Spring 2017 meetings of the American Ethnological Society.

2016: Co-Organizer: “Rituals of Discovery: Study Abroad and Encounters with the Other,” for annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association.

2015: Chair and Organizer: “Elsewhere: Tourisms and Referencing the Real,” sponsored by the Council on Anthropology and Education, for annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association.

2015: Chair: “Spirit Knowledge and Material Culture,” for the annual meeting of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association.

2012: Chair: “Crossing Museum Borders: Telling Museum Stories in Unmuseum Places,” for the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association.

2008: Discussant: “Indian Gaming and Casinos in America: A Twenty-Year Anthropological Retrospective on the Impact of the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.” Invited session (by the AAA Committee on Minority Issues in Anthropology) for the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association.

2006: Discussant: “Negotiating Critical Terrains: Museums, Exhibitions, and Commemorations at the Crossroads of Culture, History, and Memory,” for the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association.

2005: Organizer: “Museum Resonance: Representing the Past of the Present and Future.” Invited session (by the Council for Museum Anthropology) for the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association.

Conference Papers for Peer-Reviewed Panels
2022: “Being There: The Landscapes of Immersion and Virtuality in Study Abroad,” as part of the panel “Virtually Anywhere: Unsettling the Landscape of Study Abroad” for the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association, under review.

2021: “Time, Contamination, and the Handedness of Things,” as part of the panel “Small Museums: Large Truths” for annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association.

2021: “Imag(in)ing the National Self,” as part of a book panel for Mobility and Transnational Iceland: Current Transformations and Global Entanglements, for the 27th International Conference of Europeanists for the Council for European Studies.

2020: “Changing the Climate of and through Study Abroad: On the Environmental Impacts of High Impact Learning,” for The Forum on Education Abroad.

2017: “Weekending Daring and Making the Study-Away Self,” as part of the panel “Risk Exposure: Alterity, Germs, and Managed Danger” for the Spring meetings of the American Ethnological Society.

2016: “Between Hell and Hot Water: Semi-Public Nudity as Betwixt and Between,” as part of the panel “Rituals of Discovery: Study Abroad and Encounters with the Other,” for the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association.

2016: “Domestic, Dependent Economies and the Marketplaces of Representation,” as part of the panel “Reappraising Tribal Capitalism and Political Economy,” for the annual meetings of the American Society for Ethnohistory.

2015: “The College Experience as Carnival: Service, Fetish, and Inversions,” (with Shari Jacobson) as part of the panel “The Value of a (Neo)-Liberal Arts Experience,” sponsored by the American Ethnological Society, for the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association.

2015: “Exhibition Sovereignty: Representing Native Histories in Public Spaces,” paper for the Thirteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities.

2015: “Who Gave What to Whom? ‘Giving Back’ and the Market Logic of Service,” paper (with Shari Jacobson) for the annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology.

2014: “Places, Publics, Sovereignties: Siting Multiple Pasts in Shared Spaces,” paper (with Melissa Biggs) for the annual meeting of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association.

2014: “Æffects of Service Learning,” paper (with Shari Jacobson) for the annual meetings of the Society for Cultural Anthropology.

2013: “Gambling on History: Shaping Narratives in Public Spaces,” paper (with Melissa Biggs) for the Tenth Native American Symposium—“Native Ground: Protecting and Preserving History, Culture, and Customs.”

2012: “Wag(er)ing Histories, Staking Territories: Crossing Museal Borders,” for the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association.

2012: “Staking Inheritance: Wager and Territory,” for The New School for Social Research 2012 Anthropology Conference.

2010: “Contemplating Spectacle: Ethnography in Exhibitionary Spaces,” paper (with Melissa Biggs) for the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association.

2009: “The End(s) of Sovereignty: Anthropologies, Native Identities, Museums, and Casinos,” paper (with Melissa Biggs) for the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association.

2008: “Mutual Indication, the Saturations of Self-Representation, and A Question of Domestic, Dependent Economies” paper for the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association.

2007: “Crazing the Glass Boxes—Indigeneity, Museums, and the Politics of Representation,” paper for the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association.

2006: “Re: History and Landscape—Critical Mashantucket Intersections,” paper for the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association.

2005: “Mapping the Past in the Present—Locating Mashantucket Pequot Representations,” paper for the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association.

1996–2001: Papers presented for the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association, the American Ethnological Society, the Thornton F. Bradshaw Seminar in the Humanities, the American Society for Ethnohistory, the American Folklore Society, and the American Ethnological Society.

Other Presentations, Workshops, Exhibitions
2019: “Guidelines for Collaboration: Practical Considerations of Access, Documentation, and Relationship-Building” (workshop) as part of the Council for Museum Anthropology bi-annual conference, in collaboration with the School for Advanced Research.

2017: “Museums and Sovereignties: Displaying ‘the National’ as Public Identity Narrative,” for the “Fulbright in the Arctic” session of the Arctic Circle Assembly, Reykjavík.

2013: “Service, Disrupting Citizenship, and the Neoliberal Academy,” for the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Podcast Interviews
2021: On Study Abroad and the Quest for an Anti-Tourism Experience, for Meaningful Journeys, hosted by Dr. Heather Warfield, Antioch University New England.

2021: On Study Abroad and the Quest for an Anti-Tourism Experience, for Tea Time Chat Series, hosted by with Dr. Jaeyon Choe, Swansea University.

2018: “The Penis Museum, Part II,” for the Museums in Strange Places podcast.

Professional Affiliations
American Anthropological Association 
Council for Museum Anthropology 
Association of Indigenous Anthropologists 
American Alliance of Museums 
Society for Cultural Anthropology
Society for Visual Anthropology
Native American and Indigenous Studies Association
Anthropology of Tourism Interest Group (AAA)

Courses Taught