Archival Work
I am leading three current grant-funded projects that are undertaking collaborative, decolonizing, and applied archival research:
IndigenizeSNAC (PI, IMLS RE252311OLS22 $496K, 2022-2025)
Inverting Colonial Archival Structures: Increasing Discovery and Access for Indigenous Communities through SNAC (Indigenize SNAC) aims to find ways to improve the discovery and access of archival records for indigenous communities through the web platform Social Networks for Archival Contexts (SNAC).
Indigenize SNAC is funded by the IMLS Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian program to conduct and inform this project’s work with qualitative research to fulfill our mission. SNAC is involved as a case study to assess the potential for web platforms of its kind in assisting indigenous users and potential users of archives. This work follows Indigenous Edit-a-thons and the Editorial Guide for Indigenous Entity Descriptions that came out of this work.
To center Indigenous perspectives in the project, the project is co-lead (and supports the training of) Indigenous doctoral students, is designed in collaboration with a 10-person Indigenous Advisory Board, and has additional Indigenous staff recruitment throughout, including three current Indigenous Archival Consultants.
Building a Sustainable Future for Anthropology's Archives (PI, Co-PI Katrina Fenlon, NSF BCS 2314762 $349.9K, 2023-2026)
The project aims to test approaches for making discoverable and accessible anthropological archival materials that are neither digitized nor findable via web search. We are seeking to develop best practices for archiving original data across a range of formats and adapting emergent linked data infrastructures in support of broad access to cultural research data for researcher and Indigenous communities.
Indigenizing Archival Training (Co-PI with Selena Ortega-Chiolero, PI Rana Salzman, Mellon Foundation Public Knowledge Program $98K, 2023-2024)
This pilot program funds a series of free, educational “Indigenizing Archival Practices” workshops aimed at Tribal archivists (archivists working in Tribal archives) to develop archival training in which principles and best practices are driven by Indigenous values and traditional stewardship practices of communities rather than by Western archival practices and theory. Through this pilot, we will iteratively develop and test the structure and content of this training in order to develop a formal certificate program with the SAA and Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums (ATALM).
Previous Archival Work
2017–2020
Postdoctoral Fellow in Anthropological Archives
Jul 2017–Jul 2020, National Anthropological Archives, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 4210 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, MD.
2015–2017
Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow
Sept 2015–Jul 2017, American Philosophical Society Library and Museum, 104 South Fifth Street, Philadelphia, PA.
Archival Curatorial Work
2020–2021
PI and UMD Project Lead (with Laura Anderson, NPS, and four student co-curators: Mateo Arango, Kyla Cools, Courtney Douglass, Patrice Greene), Civil Rights in the National Capital Region
Online, National Park Service
2018–2020
Co-Curator (with Joshua A. Bell), Documenting Diversity: How Anthropologists Record Human Life.
Mar 2020–Sep 2021, Smithsonian Libraries and National Museum of Natural History, Ground Floor, 10th and Constitution Ave., Washington, DC: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/exhibits/documenting-diversity-how-anthropologists-record-human-life
2016–2017
Lead Curator, Curious Revolutionaries: The Peales of Philadelphia
Apr 2017–Dec 2017, American Philosophical Society (APS) Museum, 104 South Fifth Street, Philadelphia, PA: https://www.amphilsoc.org/museum/exhibitions/curious-revolutionaries-peales-philadelphia
2015–2016
Curator, Gathering Voices: Jefferson and Native America
Sept 2015–April 2016, APS Museum, Philadelphia, PA: https://www.amphilsoc.org/museum/exhibitions/gathering-voices-thomas-jefferson-and-native-america
Museum Curatorial Work
2014–2015
Project Coordinator, Three student Installations for Vancouver's Capture Photography Festival
Sept 2014–May 2015, Capture Photography Festival, Skytrain Canada Line, Vancouver BC
2011
Project Coordinator, “Faces and Voices of the Inuit Art Market”
Anthropology student exhibition featured as part of the Canadian Museum of Civilization’s travelling exhibit, “Inuit Prints: Japanese Inspiration.”
May–Sept 2011, Audain Gallery, Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver BC
2010–2011
Co-Curator, “No Windows”
Nov 2010–Feb 2011, Satellite Gallery of Belkin, MOA, & Presentation House Galleries, 560 Seymour, Vancouver BC
Interdisciplinary collaboration of five students in Critical Curatorial Studies, Art History, and Anthropology.
2010
Co-Curator, “Sapmi: Same, Same, But Different”
Feb 2010, on view until 2013, Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Downing St., Cambridge UK.
2009
Group Curator, Mason Gross BFA Thesis Exhibition
Apr –May 2009, Civic Square Gallery, Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ.
2007–2008
Art Curator, Starving Artists Cabaret
Nov 2007; Nov 2008, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Cabaret Theatre, New Brunswick, NJ.
Museum Work
2015
Institutional History Research Consultant
August 2015, Collections Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
2012
Assistant Visitor Researcher
Feb –May 2012, Museum of Vancouver, Vancouver, BC.
2010
Visiting Audience Researcher
June–July 2010, The Science Museum, London, UK..
2010
Margaret Mead Film Festival & Public Programs Intern
May–Aug 2009, American Museum of Natural History, NY, NY.
2008–2009
Geology Museum Collections Volunteer
Sep 2009–May 2009, Geology Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
2006
Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) Intern
Mar 2006, Office of Heritage Documentation Programs, National Park Service, Washington, D.C.
Artistic Works (myself as photographer)
2014
Last American Dinosaurs
Nov 2014- 2019, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Constitution Ave., Washington, D.C.
2009
Specimens in Focus
Jan 2009- present, Rutgers University Geology Museum, Somerset St., New Brunswick, NJ.
2009
Time in a Geology Museum
Apr 2009-May 2009, BFA Thesis Exhibition, Civic Square Gallery, Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ.
2009
Off the Rails
Jun 2009-Jul 2009, The Raconteur, Metuchen, NJ.
2006
Douglass College, Past and Present
May 2006-Aug 2006, Douglass College Center, George St., New Brunswick, NJ