Biography
I am an interdisciplinary scholar working at the intersections of communication studies, art history and American studies. My current research looks at cultural memory practices at contested historical sites in the United States by examining material interventions by a range of actors—including mental health service survivors, activists and contemporary artists—at former psychiatric hospitals and their cemeteries in Massachusetts. Previous projects have examined the role of the psychiatric institution in the treatment and burial of anonymous loved ones and the movement of family photographs through capitalist systems of distribution and display.
My published works include a book, The Distances Between Us (Trëma Forlag) and articles in Art New England and Big, Red & Shiny. My work has been supported by grants and fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the Linde Family Foundation and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston; the Barr Foundation and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art; and the AICA-USA and Creative Capital / Warhol Foundation Art Writing Workshop, among others. My visual projects have been shown internationally, including solo shows at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Danforth Art Museum, with works held in permanent collections that include the Danforth Art Museum, the SGCI Archives in the Zuckerman Museum of Art and the Savannah College of Art and Design, et al.
I am a current fellow at the American Antiquarian Society and a PhD candidate at Concordia University in Montréal, working under the supervision of Dr. Jeremy Stolow. I hold an MFA from Tufts University and a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. In addition to traditional scholarly output, I maintain visual arts and curatorial practices and am committed to principles and actions of equity, inclusion and justice in the classroom and beyond.